Brokeback a Beauty
Review by JANINE LUCAS
15feb06



INEVITABLY, the more you've heard about a movie, the less likely it will live up to your inflated expectations.

Brokeback Mountain has had it all - months of Oscars buzz, a swag of awards, endless debate over its supposedly controversial subject matter, then more drama over the strange failure to include Townsville in its initial national release three weeks ago.

So does it live up to the hype?

Well, not to build up your expectations or anything, Brokeback has left me in absolute awe of the power of a film-maker to move an audience.

For much of the movie, however, I wondered how such a quiet, unassuming and restrained picture had caused such a stir.

Okay, so its main characters are homosexual cowboys. Great hook but there's a distinct lack of hot and heavy man-on-man action in Brokeback Mountain.

It's not about sex.

Under director Ang Lee's gentle touch, it's a love story that is steered slowly to an understated conclusion of stunning intensity.

Lee takes his time setting up the low-key tale, which faithfully captures the spirit of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx's gem of a short story published in Close Range in 1999.

Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), two young men of opposing personalities, are paired up to guard a flock of sheep on Brokeback Mountain.

They become lovers but when they come down from the mountain they go their separate, heterosexual ways.

A social climate of malevolent bigotry in 1960s Wyoming gives them little other choice.

The reticent Ennis marries small-town girl Alma (Michelle Williams) and goes about scratching out a living for his family as a ranch hand in Riverton, Wyoming.

The showier Jack marries rich rodeo queen Lureen (Anne Hathaway) and settles in Texas under the shadow of his domineering father-in-law.

Four years after their Brokeback summer, Ennis and Jack resume what becomes a soul-destroying 20-year affair.

There are precious few outward shows of affection between the pair throughout the film, and that could have been a cop-out if it all ultimately wasn't just so beautifully executed.

One fierce kiss when Ennis and Jack are first reunited conveys more passion than any number of sex scenes could under a lesser director. Ledger and Gyllenhaal are simply awesome.

In her giant leap from Dawson's Creek to Oscar nominee, Williams is excellent as the anguished Alma.

Linda Cardellini, better known as nurse Sam Taggart in television's ER or perhaps as Velma in the Scooby-Doo movies, has a small but telling role.

Hathaway's icy Lureen is solid too but it's hard not to get distracted by the cruel and unusual punishments the film's stylists inflict on her beautiful raven hair.

The quiet pain and yearning of the final scenes of Brokeback Mountain got right under my skin.

The rest of the film was so unsentimental and gave so little that when Ledger's stony reserve cracked just a little, the effect was devastating.

Ledger really was magnificent in those last scenes as Lee loosened the reins a fraction.

I saw Brokeback while on holiday in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago and it definitely didn't grab everyone in the cinema.

As the credits rolled, a woman sitting behind me turned to her friend and exclaimed: "What're ya bawling for? That was s***.

Horses for courses, I reckon.


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Brokeback Mountain, rated M, opens tomorrow at Birch Carroll and Coyle city cinemas. (AU)


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The Townsville Bulletin
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