Hardscrabble Hearts

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2006)

The middle of the heartland, circa 1960's. The beginnings of rumblings signaling social changes and upheavals are far, far away. Out here, in the beautiful, raw and desolate expanse of the land of states like Wyoming and Colorado, the subject of the day is not about racism, classism, feminism, any 'ism' you could name in the big city. It's all about survival.
Against this bleak backdrop, two men, one a ranch-hand, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), the other a sometime rodeo cowboy, Jack Twist, (Jake Gyllenhaal), come looking for that rarest of finds in a time of hardship: a well-paying job. They do find work, yet against the picturesque and isolated setting of a place known as Brokeback Mountain, they discover something even more startling, wonderful, miraculous and inescapable...they find love. In each others arms and hearts.
Some movies serve as a call to change. The way we think, feel and see about things which we thought we knew well, and took a stand on. Some movies don't just merely call for change, but cause it, simply by being what they are. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is the latter of those special films...a movie that quietly wraps its sad and gentle hands around your heart, squeezes firmly and refuses to let go, even weeks after you've seen it...the FIRST time.
The team of Ang Lee, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Rodrigo Prieto, Gustavo Santoalalla, Marit Allen and every single person involved with breathing life into E. Annie Proulx's heartbreaking tale have outdone themselves...and undone audiences across the land who walked in expecting a gay cowboy story, only to come out transformed by a timeless tale of love found, love lost, and love still sustained in the face of impossible antagonism, prejudice and ultimately, violence.
There is no quibbling over who gave the best performance doing what. Both Heath and Jake have forever etched their names into the firmament of classic film actors with their uncompromising performances. Ditto the beautiful work by Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Linda Cardellini and Roberta Maxwell. Ang Lee has made sure that this is a movie where no part is too small or insignificant. Even Randy Quaid's brief appearance makes a considerable and ominous impression.
This is not a movie for very young kids, and even not one for older kids to view without their parents or older family members. But for anyone else who has a heart and has had it broken, gay, straight or otherwise inclined; if you are a human being with a soul, there is no way you will not be moved.
And to answer an oft-asked question: yes, I do believe that the 2005 Oscar for Best Actor will go to Heath Ledger. See him in this movie and then tell me I'm wrong. More importantly, see this movie, PERIOD.
I do not award films with a rating of '10' lightly...I'm happy to say that BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN has earned the right to that score, and then some.