Hauntingly brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2006)

I did something that probably isn't advisable - I watched this alone, late at night. I ended up sobbing into my pillow. It is that good. I had wanted to see this when it came out in the cinema, but I didn't have time. So I finally rented the movie and watched it. And oh my God, it was powerful. The most poignant moments were: Ennis and Jack's first kiss, the reunion (which, by the way, is one of the most moving things I have seen on screen), the moment Ennis realises how Jack died, when Ennis finds the shirt, and the very last line. "Jack, I swear..." We are left with that. We are left to wonder what the last part of that sentence is. I swear I never stopped loving you? I swear we'll be together someday? I swear I would have shared my life with you if I could? Perhaps it is best we are left without an ending, because all the sentiments anyone can imagine Ennis wanting to say are expressed in those three words. Their love is so pure, and, in some ways, so unexpressed between them, that your heart aches for their plight. And we are given no reassurance at the end, no feeling that everything will be all right, that they will be together somehow... nothing. Yet the whole film screams this message at us throughout - love will endure.