Hauntingly Beautiful!

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2006)

This movie goes down as one of the most haunting I've ever seen. It's the story of star-crossed lovers with a twist. Ennis Delmar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are two cowboys hired to watch a herd of sheep over the summer. During that summer, they have only each other for company and get to know each other very well. The rest of the story is how their relationship affects their lives. They can't be together, but being apart is almost torture, not only for them, but for their families. It was not about sex but about their deep, passionate, enduring love. The sex scenes were tastefully shot, not graphic, and not sleazy.
Jake Gyllenhaal was amazing and the only bad thing I can say about Heath Ledger's acting is that I wanted to tell him to stop mumbling several times during the film. The supporting cast was terrific as well.
The only real problem I had with the film is that I thought a couple of the scenes were needlessly brutal. That's the only reason this film gets a 9 instead of 10.