Susan Granger’s review of “Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features)
Director Ang Lee delves into the forbidden yet intense relationship between a stoic ranchhand and a loquacious rodeo cowboy in this exploration of masculine myth of the American cowboy.
It’s 1963 when Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) apply for summer jobs with a Wyoming rancher (Randy Quaid). While tending his sheep on Brokeback Mountain, these two lonely, isolated men embark on an unexpected sexual relationship which, ostensibly, ends as they part ways. “I’m not queer,” Ennis asserts. “Me neither,” echoes Jack. They obviously have no context in which to understand their complicated feelings for each other.
Ennis marries his long-suffering fiancŽe (Michelle Williams) and has two daughters, while Jack chooses a sexy, rich rodeo rider (Anne Hathaway) with whom he has a son. Problem is: they can’t forget each other. For two decades, they arrange to meet for occasional “fishing trips” while carrying on their passionate yet clandestine affair – until both of their marriages crumble.
Based on Annie Proulx’s 1997 short story and adapted by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, it’s a sensitive, sympathetic journey, revealing not only how their “secret” affects them but also their wives. Credit Ang Lee for superb casting. Heath Ledger convincingly embodies the stolid yet tortured Ennis, while Jake Gyllenhaal radiates sadness and pain. Essentially, their intimacy is not about sex – it’s about love, and their homoerotic sexual coupling is quick and rough. Also credit Ang Lee and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto for visualizing and communicating the emotional environment with carefully controlled restraint. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Brokeback Mountain” is a powerful, tormented 10, filled with haunting, heartfelt anguish.
