Beautiful, moving and honest

Rating: Null/10 (9 January 2006)

Saw this yesterday on its opening weekend in Ireland, and I have to say I'm numb. You can wait a long time to see a film like this, but when one comes along, it blows you away.
It's all about the acting in this one. Heath Ledger, whom I never really rated as an actor before this, did such an astounding job. Wow. There aren't superlatives enough to describe him. Definitely Oscar-worthy. And Jake Gyllenhaal was wonderful too. I completely forgot, watching them, that they were actors.
The relationship the characters shared seemed so honest and true. Gyllenhaal and Ledger really went for truth in their moments of intimacy. It was very powerful. You believed they were in love and that they yearned for each other.
What was wonderful too was that their love wasn't feminised or camp in any way. It was honest. I think 'Brokeback Mountain' delivers an important message about homosexuality, that men who fall in love with each other aren't necessarily effeminate. Ennis and Jack are very manly men who happen to find something in each other that they haven't found anywhere else.
Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway were great as the wives of the two men, particularly Hathaway, who has made the transition to serious cinema convincingly with this role.
This is a film that will stay with you, for the acting and the cinematography, but mostly for the story, for the two men who love each other, but have so much standing in their way. It'll restore your faith in cinema.