heartbreaking

Rating: 9/10 (12 March 2006)

I'll get the negatives out of the way. So the first hour dragged a bit. Yes, the settings are gorgeous. But I felt Lee let the scenery distract him from the story, as did the choppy editing.
That out of the way, oh my god. I left the theatre absolutely devastated. Annie Proulx's short story had the same effect on me when it was published years ago in the New Yorker, then in Close Range. So I approached the movie with trepidation--how many times has a film adaptation of a literary work disappointed? (However, I should have remembered Lee's adaptation of "Sense and Sensibility," one of my favorite films.) Plus, I didn't want to see this film until after the Oscars--I so badly wanted "Crash" to win Best Picture.
I'm still glad "Crash" won. But "Brokeback" is also a landmark film. Jake Gyllenhall's performance has been given short shrift. No, it isn't on par with Heath Ledger's--few are--but the characters are totally different, so the portrayals must be. Ennis is completely internal, and Ledger's enactment of that is transcendent, from the closed-off, clamped speech to the hooded, guarded eyes to the way he carries himself. Without giving away any of the plot, that's much of what makes the last few scenes almost unbearable--seeing the ragged pain of this character as he finally faces and realizes what might have been, but now never can be.
Is this a gay love story? Yes. Is it a universal love story? Yes. For anyone who has ever had the great love of their life--whether in one of the great cities, in a small town, or in the mountain wilderness--this film will leave you haunted. I will never forget the quietly devastating final scene as the closet door closes.