Good--Definitely Not Great

Rating: 6/10 (16 January 2006)

It's true that the photography was gorgeous and the film is deserving of a Best Cinematography nomination, but not for writing or best picture (which I'm sure it will).
I read the novella, which is only 50 pages long, so that's the first indication that the film was unnecessarily too long at 134 minutes. Although adaptations don't have to be true to their original source, for the most part, this one was, and yet it still ran too long.
I felt that the entire second act dragged on too long with absolutely no conflict. It was like watching Ennis's life, then watching Jack's life--skip ahead a few years--watching Ennis's life, then watching Jack's life--skip ahead a few years--watching Ennis's life, then watching Jack's life--skip ahead a few years (and so on and so on and so on). It was basically watching people breathe for an entire hour. Yes, they did have internal conflicts, but it was the SAME conflict (i.e. they want to be together but external factors prevented it) for an hour. Yes, their love was timeless, but did we really need to see them almost EVERY YEAR OF THEIR LIVES? It's not like there was a change of heart or anything on either guy's part. If the theme is that this love was timeless, then show them at a couple stages of their lives, not all of them.
This film is getting so much press because of the story and its "controversy," but any story about homosexuality can be deemed controversial--and yet Kissing Jessica Stein or the dozens of other similarly-themed films don't get nearly as much press and most definitely no nominations.
Anyway, I apologize for this tirade but the hype this film is getting really burns me up. It was good, but not nearly as great as people make it out to be. I think people are afraid to dislike it because they think they might be deemed homophobic.