I finally got it right

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2010)

This is my third go at reviewing this film. It came after rewatching it, and now I finally get it.
This is a masterpiece. This is Ang Lee's best film, and he has made many good films. This is 2005's best films and one of the best of the decade. It is probably the most socially significant American movie of the decade.
I admit, though, that the first time I saw it, I didn't like it. It wasn't that I was expecting too much from it, but that I was expecting the wrong things. I expected it to be more sensational than it was. At the same time, I didn't understand the characters' positions, sexually and socially, as I am able to now. So I said it seemed "off," and that it was too long and slow.
I take it all back. This film is perfect. It is an intense gay romance, and yet it really holds back in what it shows us. The sex scenes are not graphic, the story is not "pro-gay," and political/social agendas seem to be absent. In fact, the film does not concern itself with the gay agenda at all. It is invested in its characters, who happen to be gay and in love with each other. And this makes the movie a hundred times more of a knockout than it would ever be if it climbed upon a platform and spewed hate messages against homophobes.
The performances are perfect. Everyone deserved their nominations, and Anne Hathaway was robbed when she was the only one of the four main stars left out of the Oscar pool. The story was intense and involving, and the ending is a real tearjerker.
So if you watched this once and didn't like it, please watch it again. Most likely you'll be in the same boat as me, and you'll change your 5- and 6-star votes to 10-stars.