Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Yes, I have read all of the ecstatic reviews that this Ang Lee film garnered on its release, I understood the dismay when last year's best picture Oscar was "stolen" from it by some kind of supposedly anti-gay backlash, and I even read the short story/novella on which it was based (which I found incredibly moving).  Why then when I finally got around to viewing the movie did it result in such disappointment?  The simple answer is that I am not sure, but perhaps the hype that has surrounded this movie presented me with some false expectations.

Don't get me wrong, the film is masterly put together and much of the acting ranks with the very best, but perhaps it went on just that little bit too long, perhaps it was too opened-out from its slim outline.  Heath Ledger was truly remarkable as the lovelorn cowboy whose life never manages to find an acceptable compromise after the initial rough fumblings with Jake Gyllenhall and who can never find love or fulfillment without him; it has been ingrained in him since childhood that they can never have more than snatched days together over the 20-odd years of the story and his loneliness and despair are powerful.  Michelle Williams also gives a memorable performance as his homely wife who comes to realise that there is a rival for her love.  The weak link is, I think, Gyllenhaal.  I have some problem removing him from his young Donnie Darko persona and I never really felt that his feelings for Ledger's character were as deeply held.  He seemed very immature and less committed and, unlike Ledger for whom their relationship was both a passion and obstacle to any form of lasting happiness, Gyllenhaal seemed far more willing to take his pleasures where he might find them.  Yes, he had daydreamed that the two of them might live and work together, but his was not the same all-consuming love that ruined Ledger's life.