Emotionally Devastating: The Impossibility of the Relationship

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 2006)

This was, simply put, emotionally devastating. It started slowly and charmingly, but once the intensity of the lack--not the possibility--but lack, of Jack and Ennis's relationship became clear, I was gone, emotionally shattered, as well as my partner of 11 years.
It's amazing what a difference 40 years of Civil Rights can make--and how horrifying it is that fundamentalists in the USA are trying to turn back the clock. This film is proof that art and politics are not the same, but dance together, and that the best creators are not those committed to a rigid gender dichotomy. Desire knows no bounds.
Ang Lee speaks lack. Ledger was brilliant. His "vow" at the end, which I will not reveal, speaks volumes. I grew up out West and could empathize with his introversion, his emotional stuntedness, as it were, as well as with his intense resolve. And Gyllenhal, to my pleasure, was equally moving.
If this doesn't win the Academy Award for Best Picture, Actor, Director, then I'll be very disappointed.