Oustanding blend of the classic and the modern

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 2005)

"Brokeback Mountain" combines high-quality film-making technique and universally resonant emotions with subject matter that some people still find discomforting or taboo, for an outstanding movie that feels both classic and modern at the same time.
The first part of the film deals with a summer spent by two young sheepherders, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, on Brokeback Mountain, where their relationship goes from friendship to copulation to a love that they can scarcely believe is real. After this idyll, the film follows these characters for the next twenty years as they marry, have children, and pursue their love in secret. It's a succession of heart-wrenching emotional moments, each more painful than the next. But, amazingly, the film is never noisy, bombastic, or sappy.
The film's quartet of young actors all do wonderful work. Heath Ledger is astonishing as Ennishe takes the stereotype of the taciturn, stoic "Western" hero, forces this iconic character to confront a range of new emotions, and does it all without a hint of mockery. He makes an archetype believable again. As Jack, Jake Gyllenhaal is a great foil to Ledgermore exuberant and more hungry than he. Michelle Williams makes Ennis's wife, Alma, into a sympathetic, quietly tragic figure, and Anne Hathaway is a lot of fun as Jack's wife Lureen.
I heard that the director and producer decided that women were the target audience for this movie, according to the logic that "it's a love story, and they're cute!" But because the "love story" part of that statement is so true, the "they're cute" part gets negated. When watching certain romantic movies that star good-looking actors, you start to fantasize that it's you in the movie, kissing the handsome guy (or beautiful gal), in place of his or her co-star. This is fun, but it also means that the movie is mediocresuch fantasies take you outside of the world that the movie is trying to create. Daydreaming that you have replaced one of the actors means the romantic relationship was so weak and unpersuasive that you think you'd make a better romantic lead than the actual character in the film. But in a truly romantic movie, you believe so strongly that the two characters are meant to be together that you wouldn't dream of replacing one of them with yourself. "Brokeback Mountain" is such a film. Who on earth could break up Jack and Ennis' lovea love that persists in the face of so many obstacles, a love that they themselves cannot end? It would be sordid even to try.
So, women: go see "Brokeback Mountain." Get your heart broken half-a-dozen times by all its emotion-filled moments. Be astounded by the performances of Ledger, Gyllenhaal, Williams, and Hathaway. Just don't go expecting to spend two hours fantasizing about a handsome actor or two. This film's rewards are different, and greater. Any mediocre movie can make you fall in love with a cute leading actor. But "Brokeback Mountain" has the rare quality of making you fall in love with two characters, Jack and Ennis, and the love between them.