A rare lily pad floating upon the stagnant pond of Hollywood

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2006)

I was amazed that this film ever got made: I say that not only because the "short story" upon which it is based IS short (you could say that had it been written on the back of a cigarette packet, there would still be space), but because the subject matter (a "gay" film) is not exactly Hollywood's forte. Yet what has emerged from the tightly-sprung story, with its intricate detail, is a beautifully-shot, languid film stretching to 134 minutes. The dialogue is sparse (you get so used to this that when the 'talky' scenes appear they almost give you a headache) the action even more so, and yet I sensed that the film had been cut to 134 minutes as there were some odd scene jumps. Certainly there were no cuts in the "love scenes" (the first one was as sudden and as violent as it was in the story) and both Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are not afraid to kiss each other (although not as convincingly as James Wilby and Rupert Graves in "Maurice"). It was a strange experience to sit through a film, in a full mixed auditorium, where you could hear the proverbial pin drop: no homophobic outburst, no groans, no yawns, nothing. Everyone goes on about how certain Heath Ledger ("Ennis Del Mar") is to win the Oscar for Best Actor, which is a pity because I think Jake Gyllenhaal ("Jack Twist") is just as good, if not better. Okay, so both characters are tortured, angst-ridden souls, but Jack's "Jake" is the more complex of the two and certainly convinced me that his love for Ennis extended beyond the occasional "high altitude f***". That said, Heath certainly had me believing (during the "shirt discovery" scene) that his emptiness at losing Jake was total. This film is certainly a rare lily pad floating upon the stagnant pond of Hollywood and I can't wait for it to come out (preferably in a "director's cut") on DVD.