gay cowboys=yum

Rating: 9/10 (10 December 2005)

LIKES -It's revolutionary, of course, and that's automatically a good thing. Yay for movies about queer folk! -I was really impressed with the actors; they're straight but they put their whole selves into those roles and it showed. They just let loose and went with the characters. -HOT HOT HOT scenes. Also some male nudity, yum. -Sweet romantic scenes in the beginning. I loved the whole first part of the movie, when they were working as ranch hands together. I liked that whole section better than any other part of the movie. It just showed an awakening, and new love. Challenging the person you think you are and going with what feels right. It was great. -Ennis' struggles were shown pretty well. He had a lot more difficulties accepting his love for and attraction to a man than Jack did. Jack recognized this struggle and was totally supportive, even after he got decked by Ennis in a fit of self-loathing rage. He fought with himself all the time, whereas Jack pretty much knew what he wanted and told Ennis, and was hurt when Ennis wasn't sure he wanted the same thing. -Michelle Williams is hot. A+. -Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal aren't so bad themselves, and put together--did I mention the HOT SCENES? -When Ennis and Jack first met, you could really get their sense of sort of noticing each other but trying not to. In very subtle ways, even, like when Ennis is undressing and washing behind Jack and Jack just has this look on his face--very subtle, not even trying to peek or anything, but it's obvious that he's overly aware that Ennis is naked behind him. The subtlety of moments like this were really well done. -The setting is AMAZING. Beautiful scenery, beautiful shots of it. The camera work was beautifully done. -The viewer saw two human beings in love, but fighting against personal struggles and circumstance. Not just two gay men. I think this makes it more accessible to the straight viewers with a narrower view of love. Sort of like Rent and how it affected my parents, two people who don't approve of gay love. But they were able to just see a relationship, and it really made it hit home that these are just two people in love, and why does it matter what sex they are.
DISLIKES -The story was loosely strung together. There wasn't a solid plot line, so you were never sure where it was going really. -Ennis' violent streak wasn't at all attractive, and made it hard to relate to him and connect with him on an emotional level. He was a very quiet, withdrawn person, and he was difficult to read. Neither character was very fully developed by himself, but Jack was likable enough that you could still connect with him and feel what he's feeling. He was real. But it felt very one-way at times, until Ennis would finally collapse under the weight of his inner struggle and Jack would just envelop him. -Ennis' divorce came out of nowhere. He and Alma were distanced for years and years, then suddenly they got divorced. There wasn't really a single event that made you realize that the inevitable had finally come, so it seemed a bit odd when it did happen. -There were a few really graphic scenes that weren't necessary: a close-up shot of the gutted sheep and the visuals of two victims of hate crimes. They really took away from the rest of the movie because they were just gratuitous. -The first time Ennis and Jack had sex seemed sort of weird. They hadn't really done anything to make the other in any way suspect that they wanted each other, and in fact didn't seem to realize it themselves. So the randomness of the way the sex scene came about was sort of strange. It just didn't feel very authentic for some reason. And it seemed sort of violent too, but hey, that's Ennis. He was really rough with his wife, too. -The relationship between Ennis and his wife and kids was really hard to gauge. Well, I guess the relationship (or lack thereof) was pretty obvious, but you didn't know how HE felt about it. He was just so emotionally absent, and you never really understood it. His whole character was just difficult to read. -It wasn't as much of a romance as I'd thought. Of course it had its moments, but overall it was more emotionally distant than I'd expected. It was try to tell a love story, but without some key components of a love story.
So...it was a really good movie overall, but I think many parts could have been done better and that disappointed me a bit. I really loved it, though.