Brokeback Mountain'  © Fauquier Times-Democrat, December 28, 2005
by Randy Shulman |
 What starts as a sexual release turns into something more meaningful, although Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), the quieter and more withdrawn of the pair, doesn't recognize his transformation until after he and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) go their separate ways at summer's end. Over the next few years, Ennis and Jack build their lives, the former working as a ranch hand in Wyoming, the latter as a would-be rodeo star in Texas who ends up selling farm equipment. They both settle for less than each other -- but really, the circumstances of their time and place don't allow for much else. So Ennis and Jack find wives and raise families. When they meet again years later, they recommence where they left off, meeting two or three times a year on "fishing trips" back to their mountain, where they can be at peace with one another, quelling their longing and loneliness. Jack, the more sexually experienced of the two, and the one with a somewhat stronger homosexual need (he's not beyond dousing his fire with trips to Mexico), tries to convince Ennis to start a life with him, to build a cabin and run a ranch. But Ennis resists. "Two guys livin' together? No way," he mutters. "This thing grabs hold of us in the wrong place, wrong time, we're dead." Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, the screenplay by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana magnificently captures these cowboys of few words, opening up small moments in Proulx's work into a greater dramatic whole. The two men, especially Ennis, don't always express themselves eloquently, but they manage to get their point across. There's a simple poetry to their speech. "I wish I knew how to quit you," a frustrated Jack says to Ennis, and his words ring with pain, honesty and confusion. Ang Lee's direction is both minimalist and sweeping, perhaps his most heartfelt, emotionally compelling work. Lee gets to the heart of this complex relationship -- and the equally complex relationships surrounding it, such as Ennis's strained, loveless marriage with Alma (Michelle Williams in an Oscar-worthy turn) -- with a cinematic clarity and starkness we rarely get from movies these days. Lee lets the tale unfold in its own time, its own way, and yet the story never flags, never engages us less than fully, building to a heart-shredding conclusion. Gyllenhaal and Ledger are both magnificent. The love scenes, particularly their first encounter, are shocking, uncompromising, brilliant. But "Brokeback Mountain" is about much more. Lee makes sure we understand that Ennis and Jake are happy just sitting beside one another, taking in the majesty of Wyoming's scenic vistas. Ledger gives the movie's most wrenching performance. Ennis is a stereotypical Marlboro Man stunned by the realization that he's in love with another man ... and that's where the archetype falls apart. The narrative sways in his direction. His interactions with Alma -- who confronts his predilections in one of the most gripping scenes -- as well as other women who try to seduce him, speak volumes about the allegiance of his heart.  "I'm stuck with what I've got here," he says to Jack after their first reunion. "Makin' a livin' is 'bout all I got time for now." One could argue that Ennis and Jack's happiness is laid to waste by society's mores. But where lies tragedy, there also lies the tender, undiluted potency of genuine love. |