Cannot reach the heights....

Rating: 5/10 (10 April 2006)

I'm glad the Academy went against critical opinion in its rejection of Brokeback Mountain for best picture Oscar. Ang Lee's uninvolved "gay" cowboy film has been overrated by many critics who should have know better. Based on a short novel by Anne Proulx, heterosexual director Ang Lee has mangled a one-note symphony out of a threadbare and inconsistent story. And therein lies the problem. There is simply not enough material to fill over 2 hours. Had Lee demanded a better edit he might have saved this film; yet what we get is mangled, self-consciously dire exploration of gay love amongst men who "ain't queer". It feels like an upmarket Lifetime TV movie minus the cheesy soundtrack. The acting is also sub-par. Heath Ledger as Ennis needs elocution lessons (as does Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist) who seems to be chewing tobacco throughout this film. It's virtually impossible to decipher what they are saying. I think this film needs subtitles. In addition, each lead cowboy cannot elicit our sympathy. Both are selfish and self-contradictory to the degree that any sympathy on the audience's behalf is lost. Ledger's Ennis is so tortured that he cannot express any emotion when he needs to; yet he openly kisses Gyllenhall when he visits  a scene so unconvincing and overdone that it wouldn't go amiss in any weekday soap-opera. This is a pity. The film needed an emotional core built around its leads but fails to provide that. The wives are equally unsympathetic, so much so that we don't even feel sorry for them  especially Hathway's character who is married to Jack. However there are good elements here. The cinematography is excellent in the first thirty minutes and towards the end; yet that alone cannot save one of the most depressing and overrated films of recent memory. Thank God the Academy saw sense. For once I applaud their judgment.