An emotionally powerful film

Rating: 9/10 (15 February 2006)

Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, "Brokeback Mountain" is a melancholic tale of two cowboys caught up in the arms of a forbidden love. Helmed by Ang Lee, it looms as the favorite to win the Academy for Best Picture and Best Director Awards.
Also nominated for Best Actor is Heath Ledger, who plays Ennis Del Mar, a cowboy who finds work as a shepherd one summer up in the grandeur of Brokeback Mountain. Working with him is another cowboy and a would-be rodeo competitor Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and their relationship grows into something more, and henceforth the film covers the fragility and superficial happiness of the two as they go on with their marriages, divorces, and dealing with their families. Twice a year they go back to Brokeback Mountain to rekindle what was once their paradise, excusing themselves from the rest of society as going to a fishing trip.
This is a very provocative and, in some ways, powerful film that eventually stays on not only for its unconventional premise but for the way Lee superbly handles it. His reflective style obviously works for films like this. Gustavo Santaolalla gives an evocative score, composed mainly of singular guitar strums, that underlines the lush dramatic qualities of the film.
Still, the strength of the film mainly rests on its well-written characters, and Ledger and Gyllenhaal deliver brave performances while ably supporting them are a cast of actors that includes Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway as the cowboys' wives.
I liked "Brokeback Mountain" and appreciated it as a study of the emotions of the two main characters as they go on with the aspects of their feelings for each other. It's about reality told with much sophistication.