Brokeback Moutain
Heartbreaking. There are truly few other words capable of describing it so completely. Heartbreaking because the movie is itself tragic (I doubt I'm revealing anything here, but if you haven't seen it, quit reading and go); heartbreaking because the tragedy is perpetrated so needlessly and so inexorably; and, most of all, heartbreaking because of how invested one becomes in the film's love story.
This love story is bolstered by the absolutely seamless chemistry that Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal portray. Many actors often give rather stilted portrayals of homosexuality, but these two give a performance that is both surprisingly accurate as well as natural.
Coming pointedly second to the affair of these two men are the stories of their wives, both of whom lead lives nearly as tragic as their husbands. These equally haunting performances come from the unlikely sources of Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway; who, it must be said, impressed me quite a bit.
Despite the sheer volume of jokes made solely around "I wish I could quit you," line, I don't consider it to be a intrinsically a "gay" movie. The themes of loneliness and impossible love so central to this movie are completely universal. It certainly hit quite close to home for me.
See it. See it early and often.
2 comments:
While in general it sounds like a potentially moving piece, I regret to inform you that I'll not be seeing Mountain anytime in the immediate future, due to a self-imposed ban on paying cinema visits for major motion pictures. This ban, effective for the whole of calendar year 2006, is both a general protest at the absurdity of "hollywood," and a specific complaint regarding the budget and consequently ridiculous ticket prices for these films.
In short, because a single actor in a single movie is paid more than most Americans will make in their entire lifetime, we are forced to pay more than a week's earnings for much of the world for a single viewing of these putative masterpieces.
This ban does not apply to rentals of DVDs of these movies, second-string theater viewings costing less than five dollars, or movies not produced by the major hollywood studies or their wholly owned subsidiaries.
I might make an exception, as Ryan so helpfully illustrates, for a film featuring Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley, or Natalie Portman. I'd love to say that Angelina Jolie was on that list, but despite her obvious appeal and humanitarian traits -- she's one of the few "celebrities" who I geniunely admire -- she hasn't featured in a quality movie since playing a sexy, crazy lady. Oh, I mean the time she played a sexy, crazy-as-in-committed-sense lady in "Girl, interrupted." Though she is slated as the voice of the Queen of Darkness in the upcoming "Beowulf."
I almost mentioned it in that entry, but I couldn't agree more about the state of the modern cinema. It's headed for a crash the same way that buying music CD's already has. People enjoy their homes, people have fancy equipment, people like being able to smoke or drink whatever they'd like during a movie, etc. People don't like waiting in long lines, paying 10 bucks for a movie (when it'll cost less than twice that to just buy the DVD forever), or listening to the other assholes in the movie who can't stop talking. I've become a menace at the movies lately. A month ago I slammed my umbrella against a row of seats in front of some old ladies who were chatting. They quieted down. At Brokeback I had to creep some people out to get them to shut up, but it worked too.
But yes, in a word, theatregoing isn't what it used to be.
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