One outstanding and honest film!

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 2005)

There is far more to this movie than Jake Gyllenhaal's blue eyes. The movie struck me as an excellent fusion of A Separate Peace and The Diary of Anne Frank, with, unsurprisingly, the sparse landscape and dialog of The Last Picture Show. As someone of the same generation as Jack and Ennis (although I have spent less than one hour of my life in Wyoming), the environment (both of the external landscape and the interior landscape of the characters) struck me as authentic, with never a false moment in the movie. Although some of the dialog might have been clearer with subtitles, I never had the sense of watching a film, but felt that what was before my eyes was actually unfolding. Also, the film wasn't one second longer than it needed to be, even though it expands upon a sparse short story (55 pages), serving essentially as a faithful and reverent visual meditation on it. Intellectually, without preaching or posturing to its audience, the movie subtly gets the point across of the psychological and social consequences of a world in which human beings cannot be their authentic and honest selves, and that this world would be a better and more moral place if men like Jack and Ennis could honestly and openly express the love they feel for each other without fear of ridicule, reprisal, and violence. Politically, I hope every viewer will be inspired to work for the legalization of same-sex marriages throughout the United States, and that my fellow Christians (I am a regular churchgoer myself) will work to extend the sacrament of Holy Matrimony to gay and lesbian couples in their respective denominations. I will definitely see this film at least a second time.