Why Ang Lee is a master

Rating: 10/10 (12 December 2005)

After reading Ms. Proulx's tour-de-force story (only 30 pages), I weeped for the rest of the day. How a writer can capture all five senses of a place and its people so keenly was a magical, near religious experience. Only a few writers have ever been able do this. And only a few directors can recreate this kind of short story into a brilliant, faithful adaptation.
Mr. Lee accomplished this feat. The movie, like the written story, is about what isn't said. The silence, the human gestures and Mother Nature Herself tell the real story - the one lurking deep (very deep) below the surface. Lee's attention to detail is mind blowing. At one point early on in Brokeback, the audience sees an extreme static close-up of Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal). In the background, Ennis (Heath) is washing himself. Most directors would have had him steal a glance at the naked man. But Jack holds still, focused on his task at hand. This subtlety is what sets this movie apart from any other love story. It respects the audience, and in turn leads us to highs and lows not experienced in a theater before. I haven't been this emotionally manipulated by a film since Spielberg's The Color Purple.
A standing ovation to Lee, Ledger, Gyllenhaal, and the supporting cast (who give some of the most heartbreaking small performances ever filmed). The "buzz" is on...