Brave new cinema...

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2006)

After waiting for what seemed like forever for the film to come to our fly-blown sand-speck of a town I finally gave up and made a two hour drive over a mountain ridge in disgust just to see it. Other than the considerable hyperbole and the meager trailers I had nothing to go on. As a result, I had more than a few expectations upon purchasing my ticket. Would a film about gay cowboys be worth the trouble? Overall, I have to comment first that I was most pleased right away by the Cinematography of Rodrigo Prieto. He made a film that was beautiful to watch. Unfortunately, it looked a lot more like Canada than Wyoming - both places I've been to a lot. Still, I love the mountains and some scenes reminded me of places I had been camping or hunting as a boy, so I liked it anyway. In fact, so much of it reminded me of my childhood - absent a long shopping list of abusive, alcoholic cowboys - that it gave me a definite feeling of discomfort in places.
The next thing to notice is that most of the screen time seems to be occupied by Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist. So much is demanded of their talents it's hard to imagine the pressure they must have felt to pull it off, even with all the support they had behind them. The sheer weight of the controversy they both must have felt in even taking the roles, and their resultant success or lack thereof, may effect film making for a long time to come. In any event, I would personally thank them both for their obvious courage in stepping forward to take these very difficult and controversial roles. I hope they know that regardless of whether or not they garner future awards for their efforts, millions of people will be touched and their lives enriched by witnessing their performances here.
For me, being a westerner who grew up in the shadow of huge, majestic mountain ranges, I oddly felt myself want to be negative about Ledger's performance. After all, why couldn't they find an authentic American to play the part, I asked myself? Well, I have to say that Ledger found a character within him that genuinely reminded me of people I have known. How far this is from his real persona can only be guessed at, but he certainly didn't do any injustice to the real type of person he played. For his part, Gyllenhaal didn't disappoint either (although it was a bit harder to buy both as they "aged" on-screen). Their portrayal of their happenstance meeting and subsequent attraction that grew over their first summer together into a life-long secret life and even more secret love-affair is the central theme of the film. The lost and lonely gay men they portrayed, trying to make their way in a society that was, and to some extent remains, a highly dangerous one to gays, were both touching and heart-breaking to witness. The pseudo success of Gyllenhaal's character's "hetero" life gave a stark comparison to the lonely semi-reclusiveness of Ledger's circumstances and, doubtless, both are true enough to reality, but both were equally tragic in that they were denied the full happiness that life could have given them. I enjoyed both performances a lot although their characterizations were quite different. At the end I felt both wonderfully fleshed out their roles and gave honor, dignity and grace to what they brought to the screen and I will long remember them. The end result was a story of two humans who just plainly loved each other and could never find a place to just be alive and truthful to themselves. Neither Romeo and Juliet or Tristan & Isolde have anything on these men, as theirs is a story that ultimately feels much more real, believable and tragic. Even as I write this, there are but very few places in the world that would not shun or condemn them for just being alive.
A pivotal element of the film were the scattering of other characters around the central stars, giving a sense of completeness, "fleshing" out their lives. I especially enjoyed both Michelle Williams as Alma, Ledger's wife, and the wonderful Anne Hathaway as Lureen, Gyllenhaal's wife. This was quite a departure for Hathaway from the sort of usual characters she's played, but her's was a great counterpoint to Gyllenhaal's. Both of these ladies reminded me of women I've known, so I felt they added more reality to the overall presentation. Other's who truly added substance to the film, for me, were Graham Beckel, as Lureen's father; Randy Quaid as Joe Aguirre; Linda Cardellini as Cassie; Kate Mara as Alma Jr. and Roberta Maxwell as Jack's mother (her's was a real gem too). In fact, I think I have loved both Cardellini and Hathaway in everything I've seen them in.
All-in-all, it was a great movie, extremely well made and very entertaining, well worth the trouble - and long drive - I went through to see it. The remainder of the crew who brought this to the screen should all be commended for a superlative job, but in the final analysis, I think the impact of this film will be one of being remembered more for it's socio-political statement more than it's cinematic quality.
On the eve of the announcements for the academy awards, I feel it's a shoe-in to get many nominations and should deservedly win some. I like it better than some of the other possible contenders for Best Picture, Cinematography and certainly enjoyed the performances enough to hope that at least Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams get a nod for acting. Good luck to them.