Quietly Amazing

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2005)

I first became aware of Ang Lee as a director of incredible sensitivity after seeing Sense and Sensibility; later I rented The Ice Storm and wondered at how this man from Taiwan seemed to get into the heads and hearts of a bunch of white people in Connecticut. But this film more than confirms his genius-I've lived in rural Texas and I'd have to say the film gets the people of the West exactly right (although I don't know Wyoming; maybe the scenery-Canada standing in for Wyoming-might look a bit off to someone from there). Lee is now one of my favorite directors and this is my favorite film of 2005.
I can see that some people might not like this film because the subject matter makes them feel uncomfortable, and it is long, gracefully paced and low on plot, but there is not a wasted word or a false moment in the movie.
Lee's trademark is that he gives as much respect to the most minor characters as to the leads. My favorite line belongs to a minor subplot, though I can't give enough context to explain its poignancy: when Ennis says, to a girl he's been avoiding, "I'm probably not much fun anyway," and she answers, "Girls don't fall in love with fun."
I had thought the film would be more romantic if two handsomer men played the lead roles, but the very ordinariness of their appearance-especially Ledger, who is a rather plain looking guy if you ask me-heightens the feeling.
I find it interesting that the background of their lives, esp. Ennis's, is extreme poverty. Who would have thought Hollywood would put forward an image of men in love that is poor, rural and white-the only people in America that it is politically correct to ridicule, but they're being shown as having a depth of feeling men are rarely allowed in movies.
Lee's The Ice Storm is the first film about the 70's that doesn't make fun of the clothes. Brokeback Mountain is probably the first film about two men in love that doesn't make fun of them on some level. This is far more threatening to convention than anything self-styled radicals like Bruce LaBruce have ever done. The sad thing is that it took a bunch of straight people to do it. Gay men seem to make movies that show themselves as harmless, weak and a little ridiculous, just as black male comedians can't seem to resist making young black men into stereotypes.
Heath Ledger's performance is heartbreaking. If he doesn't get the Best Actor Oscar there is no God.
Anyway, I love this film and can't recommend it enough.