" Brokeback Mountain"
"As Reported by Dollyforme"
I was at a gas station and they had used DVDs – 2 for 5 bucks. Yep – one of the DVDs in the box was none other than Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," based on the short story by Annie Proulx. Now I heard that the YUMMY Ann Hathaway does the nude thing in this flick so I bought it for that reason. And yep, she was fabulous in this movie – even with her clothes on.
Be warned this movie is rather frank in its depiction of homosexuality. Unlike the chaste coupling of Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas in 1993's "Philadelphia," Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger's gay relationship happens on screen. Not only do the lovers establish their connection on an emotional level, they also kiss and hug, repeatedly, and make love in a tent on the titular mountain. Genuine progress has definitely been made. "The Celluloid Closet" provides an excellent grounding in the subject, and Lee can be commended for his contribution. "Brokeback Mountain" is an epic love story about gay cowboys and that, in itself, is something.
Mr. Lee spares no expense to get picture-perfect visuals: thousands of photogenic sheep traverse the mountain, a veritable Wyoming paradise of green trees, jutting mountain tops, blue sky and rolling clouds. The twangy, evocative guitar score sets the tone for the film's mood of plaintive longing. We see the men bond over cans of bean and shots of whiskey. Their relationship develops slowly and credibly.
"Brokeback Mountain" sets out to be an epic love story, but the romance is weighed down by the burden of covering a twenty-year time span. It's a heavy task for any filmmaker: to cover so much story, the necessary marriages, births, and necessary heartrending death, all the while asking your stars to age on screen. Appropriate make-up is applied, hair thinned and turned gray, slim bodies made to appear paunchy. Ennis marries his childhood sweetheart Alma (Michelle Williams, who is wasted in the role of the suffering wife.) Jack marries a sexy young rodeo girl (our yummy Anne Hathaway, who has her own problems, including big blond hair.)
Because both husbands are closeted gay men, neither marriage works. They go through the motions of a heterosexual lifestyle, raising children and working jobs they do not care for. The subject is certainly moving enough; their plight is sympathetic, but unfortunately, the love story is not. The men meet for intermittent fishing trips over the years. For the most part, the audience is subject to petty and not so petty fighting: between the married spouses and also between Jack and Ennis. The wives want escape, and the husbands desperately yearn for it too.
To me, if you are a fan of Ann Hathaway, see the movie – very little screen time is spent between the gay lovers – she does a fabulous job of trying to be a great wife to a closet homosexual.
