An excellent, haunting film...but what does Jake's character see in Heath, and where are the "secret smiles" all lovers share?

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 2006)

Although this is an excellent, haunting film, it was still very disappointing on so many levels, and the biggest disappointment was the absence of any sparks between the two main actors, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.
The entire romantic angle of the film is spoilt because it's hard to fathom exactly what it is that Jake's character sees in Heath's character, because Heath hardly says a word, and just mopes around endlessly. Where are the knowing, "secret smiles" that all lovers share? Nowhere to be seen in this film, that's for sure.
It's all very well for Heath's character to be too scared to come out of the closet, but surely, every now and again, when the two of them are together, he'd show some form of affection. After all, they are supposed to be madly in love with each other. They show a bit of enthusiasm when they go off to their "fishing trips", but except for one or two moments, we never see them having any fun together.
The supposedly controversial sex scenes are too tame.There's a lot more genuine sexuality in the original short story and it would have been a real breakthrough if, for once, a Hollywood film had smashed through a few of the remaining taboos and made a flat-out effort to tell this story the way it was originally written.
Despite my initial disappointment, I can still see it's an excellent film, and perhaps one that needs to be seen a few times before the full impact sinks in.