Brokeback Mountain: Gay Cowboys Rule!!!

After the festivieness of Festivus, Hil and I embarked on the notion of seeing a movie on xmas day.

Rob dropped us off at the Paramount (an epic giga-theatre in downtown TO), where we happily got tickets for Brokeback Mountain. We'd been looking for a chance to see this one, as it was reviewed very highly in the NOW magazine. (As a sidebar, there was a degree of controversy over the fact that despite being so highly lauded, a film about gay-cowboy-love only opened in one theatre in the entire GTA. Regardless - that was all moot, as it's playing in every theatre now).

We've been on a Jake Gyllenhal (sp!?!?) kick as of late, and after seeing Jarhead a few weeks ago, this was an entirely different film.

Based on a short story by Annie Proulx (wrote the shipping news) - Brokeback Mountain starts in the sixties and plays out over over the next 2 decades. Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake G) are young cowboys from broken homes with the busted wallets to match. Hurting for work, they take on a job herding sheep up on, yup, you guessed it - Brokeback Mountain. It's a tough, isolated job, where they have to rely on each other to keep the sheep alive.

With all the cowboy posturing and toughness, amidst the travails of their dubious job - it's fascinating to see Ennis and Jack fall in love - in a tough, manly kinda way. The first part of this film is one of the greatest love stories I've ever seen - it is so human, so flawed and real.

The rest of the film follows the hardships the cowpokes endure as they try to carve out their own lives in a homophobic world. Yet whenever they can, they try to meet up at Brokeback Mountain - the only place where they can be alone and share their love.

The rest of the cast is brilliant too - Anne Hathaway (the immensely doe-eyed brunette from all the G-rated disney "princess films") is excellent as Jack's wife. Her haircuts alone could justify half the price of your ticket. Eniss's tortured young bride (by some girl from Dawson Creek, Michelle William?) carries her role with bite and aplomb.

With this being my third month in Toronto, it was rather heartbreaking to see that the film was shot in Alberta. I miss my mountains. Damnit, the scenery in this film, with it's high ranges, craggy peaks, and mountains that yawn into eternal skies had me missing home terribly.

I could go on to cite how great this particular scene is, or that one, etc, etc but really, that would do this film a disservice. Jake G's performance is astoundingly good, and drives another nail into the thinly crafted coffin of talent that Jude Law rode in on his 5 films last year. But Heath Ledger completely floored me. While I thought he was mainly a prettyboy actor (such as the Grisham film that he was in) - the quality of his work in this movie is courageous and has earned my respect. This guy can act!

So, go see Brokeback Mountain. The best drama I've seen all year. Easily.

j