Brokeback Mountain

I figured that since everybody else has reviewed this movie I might as well give my two cents so that somewhere down the line I can actually justify having watched with more than "well everybody else was doing it," so here goes nothing. I doubt that anybody who doesn't know the basic plot could actually be in touch enough with society to have found their way to this blog so I'll keep the recap short. In fact the whole review will be short because there's not too much to say. Here's the plot: two men, Ennis Del Mar played to much accolade by Heath Ledger, and rodeo cowboy Jack Twist played by Jake Gyllenhaal, go to work as sheep herders for the summer on Brokeback Mountain. They get drunk, have sex, and as is the norm in Hollywood, are therefore bound by eternal love for all of...well, eternity. Seriously though the rest of the movie chronicles their lives as they finish the summer working and go their separate ways. Both get married, Jack to a rodeo princess Laureen, played by the "eager to be a serious actress" Anne Hathaway, and Ennis to Alma, played by Dawson's Creek has been Michelle Williams who gives the most moving performance of the film. The movie covers the years of their lives as they continually hook up for a fling or two while either ignoring their wives or divorcing them. I'm sorry, I am a pretty big romantic at heart, and I think true love is just grand. But you know what isn't grand? Two guys who, straight or gay, enter into marriages that they both know are total shams so that they can produce kids they won't care for while they're romping around with some wild affair. I'm sure this is like fourteen hate crimes all in one, but really...REALLY, they were jerks. If they were so deeply in love then they could have gone and lived on their precious mountain without setting a bunch of poor people up for the heartache of losing a husband or father. It winds up not really working out as Jack is killed by a bunch of guys in a very similar fashion to a killing Ennis witnessed as a child. So Ennis is left alone and he goes to the house of Jack's parents where he finds their two shirts on the same hanger, you must understand that Jack had taken it from him after their first summer working together, and this is supposed to represent how they were meant for each other or something. You want to know what I thought? Well you've read this far so I assume you do, I was thinking something along the lines of: "Thank God there was one less shirt for Ennis' horribly mistreated wife to wash for her careless punk of a husband!" Seriously, they weren't heroes, they were thoughtless and driven by lust. The performances were fine, I won't lie, but the only one I really cared about was Michelle William's Alma who had her family torn apart while she desperately tried to ignore the obvious fact that her husband was repeatedly cheating on her. I'm sure there are a million people who would be royally pissed to hear their precious movie so slandered, but it deserves it. The cinematography was very nice, and the settings were beautiful, specifically the various colors in the sky and among the clouds. The Oscar winning score was also well done, but these are not the things that should be great in a movie, they help, they earn a half a star here or there, but when you watch it and you feel like it's wanting you to sympathize with pretty pathetic people it only makes for a poor movie experience. The long and the short of it is that it may have been very edgy and new, but the result seems to be the opposite of what they hoped to accomplish and heck, at least in Rent we got to hear them sing some great songs.

C-