Great directing, good actors, lousy story

Rating: 6/10 (27 January 2007)

THere's been a lot of talk about "Crash" winning best picture and how the academy awarded it out of homophobia. Frankly, I can see why they would award it to that picture over Brokeback Mountain.
Brokeback Mountain is a good film. Brokeback Mountain won Ang Lee the award for best director and he definitely deserved it. However, I found the story itself to be downright depressing. Both Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are great in their respective roles, and so are the actresses that play their wives. I'll go as far as saying that the acting in this is wonderful, especially on the part of Ledger.
However, the short story and the script are both very, very depressing. The film goes from racy to just plain sad through the film, ending with the final shot at the end. Were this a story about a man and a woman or a woman and a woman I would be writing the same thing. If anything this film is saying "homosexuality leads to sorrow" which is especially sad. I know several homosexual couples where this is the exact opposite. I wouldn't really praise this as Hollywood's coming out. It's more like a well dressed gay bash.