Very good movie...awesome acting....and yes, haunting

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2006)

Spoilers! As I suspected. For those who can not get past men loving each other and more precisely, having sex, the rest of the movie will be pointless. This is a very deliberately paced movie which will also turn many people off. It was extremely nice to have the director take all the time he needed to introduce the two main characters and let their situation be visualized. Many of todays audiences will want the first 40 minutes condensed down into 5-7 minutes. This is not anything like the crop of low budget, very independent "gay" movies that have come out in the last decade. This is a well crafted film and reminded me of "Days of Heaven" Many people will wonder "where is the love?" forgetting that love is many things to many people and that the way, you love in your relationship is not the way it works for everyone. It took me a bit to reconcile this point but you have to keep your head routed in the time and place and, in particular with the characters. So the particular sex scene was kind of a shock to me , but after thinking about it, it made sense. This is not an easy movie everything laid out. There are points that may or may not seem right to you that will come clear later or after you have stewed on it for a while. Or maybe they won't. There are many who complain of the death in the movie. It has been the bane of gay stories, over the past many decades, that someone always has to die. That has been clearing up lately with lots of fresh, breezy, pleasant "gay" films ...which is wonderful. This is not that kind of film. The old convention of death shows up but it is the way this film works. I have read many reviews from people (mostly young gay men) who said that it was a bad story because the two men didn't have the courage to live together in love. That is not the story being told. Write your own script. Yes this was a sad movie and I did cry though not so much (as I expected) at the very end as in other emotional scenes as well as one small spot at the beginning. The photography is beautiful as is the score. This is a realistic movie. You will find , maybe two lines in the film, to give you a chuckle, otherwise there are no one liners tossed in every few minutes to relieve the tension or remind you that you are watching a film. There are no gratuitous, unbelievable action sequences, there are no car chases or extreme violence (except for one or two flashes) or steamy erotic sex scenes, nothing that is there to wink at the audience or remind you you are sitting in a theater. Jake Gyllenhaal was very good. Not having seen him in much I did suspect he was a good actor, His character is the more fun pleasant one and, as such, seemed less of a challenge but he has some really, really good moments. I had heard Heath Leger's name over the years but have never seen him in anything and figure he was as portrayed by the media, a cute semi leading man passing through. He certainly busted up into the top level of actors on my list. I have know guys like this. Didn't know who Michelle Williams was either. Excellent acting in a small part. I know many people thought the movie was too long. I wanted a bit more. More of their lives in the last half hour. More about the wives and children but then I suppose it would have been a mini series! You can never please everyone, Many of the reviews I have read are 10 stars (many people gushing on and on) or one star. It is fine to give it 10 stars if you felt that way. Many of the one star "reviews" were from people (mostly men) who, as said above and previously, can not get past the gay part of the movie and do not ever see the film. Most of the other half of the one star reviews seem to be from gay men who wanted a fuzzy Hollywood romance about men coming out and starting a ranch and or moving to California or New York, which would be fine as a story but it isn't this story...or they wanted to see more sex, affection and such and that was all they wanted in the movie. There are very few average or bad reviews that actually review the film honestly. I don't know if it is the best film of the year, it is very good but I really like "Crash" too. I do think that Heath Leger's performance is one of the best in many years. Go see it and let it sink in. You may or may not like it but that is what films are about.