Ledger's 'Brokeback' role Oscar-worthy
Friday, January 06, 2006
JOAN E. VADEBONCOEUR
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

from The Post Standard


The best-actor Oscar is going to be a neck-and-neck race between Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote and Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar.

Ledger is heartbreaking as the ranch hand who loves, but who chooses to deny his life, in the moving, ultra-sensitive drama "Brokeback Mountain," which should also win an Academy Award for its director, Ang Lee. And, if it can be maneuvered to put Jake Gyllenhaal into a supporting category, which is unlikely due to the size of the role, Gyllenhaal easily will win a nomination.

Ranch hands, i.e. cowboys, are supposed to be rugged, as rugged as the title mountain. Well, Ledger's Ennis and Gyllenhaal's Jack are in a more contemporary sense than those of the days of the Western movie that belonged to John Wayne.

Both need employment. Ennis hopes to buy a spread of his own for the woman he intends to wed. Jack is escaping his hardscrabble life and, in particular, his tyrant father. Ennis is introverted. Jack, a former rodeo competitor, is far more outgoing and in tune with the real world. Yet they bond and one night, much against his better judgment, Ennis has sex with his partner on the lonely mountain where they are tending sheep.

The relationship does not mature. Ennis marries (Michelle Williams), sires two daughters and fills grubby jobs for a living while Jack returns to the rodeo and attracts the eye of a rancher's princess daughter (Anne Hathaway). Yet their love blooms again and they begin a series of outings, excused to their wives as fishing expeditions.

Ennis' denial continues even after his divorce as he works diligently to pay child support. He is dogged by the vision of a man clubbed to death over his gay affair. At length, Jack cannot bear the lack of commitment and breaks it off. What happens after that cannot be revealed here.

Ledger's performance is brilliant. It is highly understated, yet the repressed feelings below his surface are conveyed with just a few words and small gestures. Gyllenhaal has the easier role at first since he is a showboat. Yet, halfway into the film, he is called upon for inner resources to project his anguish. He does it superbly, never overplaying. Both seem at home in their sheep-tending jobs, which require tossing the animals onto their shoulders and rounding them up while riding horses.

The women are woven into the warp in deep portraits, particularly Williams as Ledger's wife. Watch her facial reaction when she sees her husband kiss his friend and no words are needed to discover her pain, bewilderment and hurt. Hathaway falls a step or two behind Williams, but is highly effective.

Lee, too, reins in melodramatic temptation, keeping it simple and sets his movie against backdrops that contribute strongly to the milieu in which the two move. One scene is tremendously impressive as he films the hundreds of sheep tramping up the mountain in relation to the peak and the valley through which they are traveling.


Joan Vadeboncoeur writes for CNY, Weekend and Stars.