New American classic love story

Rating: 10/10 (12 September 2005)

I was lucky to get a ticket to the second screening of Brokeback Mountain at the Toronto Int'l Film Fest in September, months before the well-deserved hype kicked in. This is an absolutely beautiful movie. From a gay man's perspective, the love story was both satisfying and heart-breaking.
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal give equally moving and accomplished performances, although the story tends to focus more on Ledger's character. Heath is note perfect in this role. I didn't detect a false moment once from him. Regardless of whether or not he wins the Oscar, his performance in this movie will be watched and admired for years to come as a landmark in acting. I truly related to his character's internalized homophobia. Every gay man has been there before. In many ways, he represents the embodiment of shame and self-hate, a product of his American, western culture. The flashback showing his father take him as a boy to look at the dead body of some murdered gay man should be shown to every Christian fundamentalist out there who ever argued (and continue to argue) that homosexuality is a choice and that gay men and lesbians are nurtured by their environment. I've seen the movie three times now, and Heath brings tears to my eyes every time - he's so good.
Jake is also incredible, sweet, nuanced, loving. He had the difficult part of being essentially the "love interest" rather than the main character. By the end, he personifies the tragedy of hopes that never come to be - as captured perfectly by Lee with the cut between the flashback of Jake's longing and beautiful face next to Jake 20 years later worn down by the weight of dashed dreams, wondering what could have been. This is one of those movies where you find that you fully appreciate both performances of the two men, Heath and Jake, equally, but perhaps one before the other over time. I was first blown away by Heath's performance, which seemed to eclipse Jake's performance - but over time, I've learned to truly appreciate what Gyllenhaal did here and how utterly perfect his portrayal really is.
The other performances in this movie are all first-rate, especially Michelle Williams who is the portrait of vulnerability in this movie. She deserves all the accolades she's received for this performance. Anne Hathaway did well too with very little screen time, but knocked it out of the park with the phone call scene at the end (incidentally, the only scene her character even had in the original short story.)
The movie should become both an American love story classic, as well as a gay classic. Glad to have someone of Ang Lee's talent take on a project like this. What an amazing man he is!