Destined to be a classic

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 2006)

The basic goal, for every writer or artist or film-maker, is to enable an audience to be transported - even if only for a moment - into the skin of the character being portrayed; to walk the proverbial mile in their shoes. This film comes as close as any I've ever seen to accomplishing that.
It is a portrait of despair, linking rare and beautiful moments of incandescent joy, and it should make everyone who sees it question their own beliefs, and ask themselves why, in a world so mired in vicious hatred and mindless violence, so many people can accept vile traits like bigotry and prejudice and holier-than-thou arrogance, but be unable to tolerate love between two consenting adults.
Doesn't make sense to me - but what do I know? This film will offend the narrow-minded and the homophobic and generate leers and prurient snickers in those unable to conceive that such a love could be genuine, but for those sufficiently unbiased to see it for what it really is, it just might change lives, for it's not really a fundamental story about gay cowboys or men involved with men.
In the final analysis, it's simply a beautiful love story, wrapped in tragedy, not to mention an exercise in bravery for those who created and performed it. Ledger is brilliant, IMHO, but Gyllenhaal is absolutely radiant; it's undoubtedly the best thing either of them have ever done.
A true tour de force.