A slow-burner that lingers long in the mind

Rating: 7/10 (10 April 2008)

The first mainstream gay western (Warhol's 'Lonesome Cowboys' can only be described as niche or cult), 'Brokeback Mountain' was the surprise hit of 2005, another triumph for the talented director Ang Lee (who also gave us such diverse films as The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon).
Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) are the cowboys who start working together and find an intense sexual attraction which will continue to burn for twenty years. The film covers those two decades as we watch the idealistic Jack, who dreams of acceptance and a life with Ennis out on the ranch, and the tormented, disturbed Ennis (who remembers gay cowboys being murdered in his youth), who can't connect with anyone and anything other than his lonely soul.
Extremely slow in pace, and all the better for it in an age of fast, rushed films for the MTV generation, 'Brokeback Mountain' is a love story just as valid as any other. For a mainstream movie to even address some of the issues looked at here is amazing, and the film benefits from sensitive direction, low-key romantic scenes, and total commitment from the leading actors. Gyllenhaal is better than he was in 'Donnie Darko', but he is overshadowed by Ledger, who shows here what a fantastic actor he was. It is a tragedy that his early death has robbed us from seeing this talent grow. Here in this film he resembles a young James Dean in 'Giant', playing older than his age with ease.
Not an easy film to watch, then, but it repays close study and patience, and some of its lines and images will stay with you for a long time after the credits roll. Proof that intelligent cinema can still survive in the age of blockbuster action flicks.