Deeply Affecting

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2005)

Seeing there were so many comments I wasn't sure I should post, but here goes. It won't be your standard review, though - haven't you already read plenty that tell you the story? First, unless you are deeply homophobic it will be tough not to be moved by this story. It isn't about gay sex, it's about human love. It's about how love sometimes overpowers us, how we can't control who we fall in love with, how we as human beings need connection with one another, and about how empty our lives can be if we don't find that connection, nurture it, care for it, and allow it to grow and deepen.
It's about how the need for a particular person in your life can live in spite of time and distance, even beyond death.
And finally it's about how life is too short for us not to go after what we want, to try to be something we're not, to deny something strong and pure.
And Ang Lee managed to create a film about a gay relationship that has such a purity that we are not concerned about the logistics of their sex life. We only want them to be together, because if we loved someone that way, we would walk through mountains to be with that person.
Some have said they should have just made this about a heterosexual couple. But what makes this story work is the backdrop of fear and hatred, the danger that this couple faces for something lovely between the two of them that harms no one, and that's no one's business but their own. Hetero couples don't have to face what Jack and Ennis face.
The movie isn't perfect. Some of the secondary characters could have used a bit of fleshing out. I wasn't thrilled with the makeup meant to age Jack and Ennis.
But Heath and Jake were phenomenal, sweet and knowable, and we half fall in love with them ourselves, wanting to shove them together. The sweetness of their love touches us where we are the most vulnerable.
And as many have mentioned, the film will make you long for a love of your life.