Good but not the film I was told about. -spoiler-

Rating: 7/10 (24 February 2006)

This is the second time in recent memory I have felt this way about media, the first being The DaVinci Code (which although I think is over-hyped, I still think its a great book, perhaps slightly more worthy than this film, but I digress). Either way, the situation is similar, I feel a good piece of work is having its reputation over embellished by the controversial nature of its subject matter. The view that this movie is supposedly redefining what a "Love Story" can be is, first of all, not something I agree with. I don't think it redefined anything about love, the feelings and the story are fairly old, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I had seen this movie before in the way of side plots or reorganizations or fractions of other films.
It seemed almost as though the point that they were in a sexual relationship was tagged on. Maybe because of how quickly it happened or how it is then just stretched and stretched through out the rest of the slow moving film. It almost like the movie is two movies which were mismatched. The story just seemed so stretched (which I suppose makes sense since the film is based on a short story).
Acting was, well, acting like cowboys, who always kind of seem sexually repressed. This wasn't exactly a major stretch of the imagination.
My biggest criticism is by far how slow and monotonous this movie is. It seems like everything goes on for to long. and when something finally does happen it seems forced and sudden, like when -spoiler- Jack dies -end spoiler-.