Disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (16 February 2006)

Brokeback Mountain is one of the most disappointing films I've seen this year. By now all know about the 'gay cowboy' film. And that aspect of the story did not bother me at all. I don't care who falls in love with whom. The sex scenes did not faze me, nor did I even find them all that graphic or jarring.
The main problem I had, besides it being somewhat dull, was this - I was unconvinced that the two leads even liked each - I could discern no chemistry between them. Plus, I couldn't connect with them either - as characters, as victims, or even as star crossed lovers. The only character I cared about (always a bad sign when you start looking for people to care about in a film) was Michelle Williams, who plays the wife of Heath Ledger's character, and stands out the most here for her overall excellent performance.
As far as the rest of the performances go, there is not a bad one. But I was surprised at the accents - Heath Ledger's accent sounds like every Aussie or Brit actor who 'can't' do an American accent - or hams up a Southern one so clichéd that a Foghorn Leghorn image springs up. And I'm not sure a Wyoming cowboy would sound that way anyway. As far as Jake Gyllenhaal's Texas accent, I found it nondescript  being not all sure he was even attempting one.
Spoiler coming - and while the off-screen (for the most part) murder takes place in Texas, and not in Wyoming, the allusion to the Matthew Shephard killing is one that I waited for the entire movie  esp with the foreshadowing of the two cowboys being 'shepherds' in the beginning of the film, the story of the two other cowboys (who were beat to death) that Ennis tells Jack about, and the fact that the movie takes place in Wyoming. But that is not a major complaint  that was mostly my fault. Most will find that the movie is really not a preachy movie  it is primarily just a love story between these two men. I just wish it hadn't been as dull as it was.