A let down, but beautifully shot

Rating: 6/10 (4 February 2006)

I really expected more from this picture with all of the awards, nominations, and the hype. I guess that is why we all form our own opinion and this is mine.
I found big problems in the way the characters developed. It really took a very long time for any conflict to arise. The first piece of passion came out of left field and was really jarring. I found it to be not believable.
From there on I had a hard time with the characters motivations and there decision making, but a more difficult time with the supporting cast which seemed to really be an after thought. Their motivations seemed disjointed and again non-credible. Michelle Williams' character was presented at the wedding and two scenes later without aging she had two children. I know as an audience we are supposed to accept changes in time, but the filmmaker's job is to make that believable and bridge the scenes.
Every time a new scene was presented years had passed without any real indication. The love story here wasn't enough to hide the flaws of the storytelling and the film structure. We spent tons of time on the mountain trying to develop a hard to understand relationship (I have more passionate conversations with people at the mall in line for pretzels) and we're supposed to ride out the internal conflicts and poorly told supporting cast conflicts until 25 years later (with no good visual signs of aging) the character gets killed in a gay bashing hate crime.
The story is all over the place, and many of the 'other' relationships just don't really make any sense; Heath and his freshly divorced(2 scenes later) wife share thanksgiving with the kids and her new husband - again hard to believe. Another example, Jake's character and his father-in-law, tons of anger with underdeveloped subtext, that isn't backed by anything in the rest of the story. Jake's wife is someone he meets in bar, hooks up with and in the next scene has a 4 week old child.
The story is long, but long without really developing anything but internal struggles with open homosexuality and social norms. If we have to watch something this long, give us more well rounded character development.
My guess is the story was much better told before some studio focus groups got hold of it, and then many meaningful parts got cut out. I expected more from the film and I was very disappointed.
On a positive note, Rodrigo Prieto beautifully captured the semblance of a film that we got, and is very well deserving of the Best Cinematography nomination