Extraordinary

Rating: 10/10 (3 January 2006)

This must be a breakthrough film. It certainly is for me. I was not expecting such depth and quality. Being 60 and from Oklahoma, the hardscrabble life of no hope and make do resonated too close. I remember those "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" people. Ang Lee manages to get them to emote. At one point I thought, "no wonder we have sex between men and women - otherwise there wouldn't be any communication at all." And between men and men? Just the way they rarely look each other in the eye. Unbelievably wrenching. Heath Ledger is brilliant. There is no other word for it. Mute, muffled, and mumbling, he is the everyman of the everyday man, haunting in the separateness of being male. Jake G. manages to light a fire inside Heath's character, but every spark is eventually blown out by the bleakness, only to be rekindled with their reunions. This is love as survival. Don't miss it. You will be awakened.