| 1/01/2006 |
DESPARADO
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The Brokeback Breakdown
Overall I'd give Brokeback Mountain an A-. The casting was very well done. I didn't have a hard time beliving any of the characters. There was the occasional "Oh hey! I didn't know she was in this movie too" moment. Then a couple instances of trying to figure out who someone was. The way the aged the actors worked well for most of the cast except Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal). He looked like a car salesman or an extra in from CHiPs by the end of it. Ennis (Heath Ledger) totally looked believably older by the end of the film. He looked like a younger Robert Redford. His transformation was amazing.
The overall plot of the movie is about two cowboys, Jack and Ennis, who develop a romance after spending the summer together herding sheep in Wyoming. Once the summer ends they each go their own way and have their own lives. Yet they find themselves thinking about the summer they spent together on Brokeback Mountain. Ennis settles down with a nice girl and has a couple of kids, played by Michelle Willams from Dawson's Creek fame. Jack meets a rodeo barrel racer played by Anne Hathaway, who had formerly been a very girly girly in the Princess Diaries movies. I was very impressed by both performances. Hopefully this will be a nice jump point for Hathaway to take one serious roles.
Anyway... The story is told over the course of 20 years. Jack visits Ennis in Wyoming at least once a summer, then more frequently as the years go by. They go back up to Brokeback and spend romantic weekends together. Jack wants more, but Ennis can't make the same leap into a relationship. Jack talks about setting up a ranch together and raising cattle. Ennis seems conflicted by all of it, but always ends up going back to his wife and kids.
By this time Ennis' wife Alma has figured out what is going on. On one of Jacks' first visits she sees her husband passionately kissing Jack, where they thought no one could see. My heart dropped... I felt so bad for Alma living with Ennis for many years after her discovery before she finally makes the decision to leave him. The scene where she busts him on his 'discreet' behavior is truly memorable. One of the best scenes in the whole movie. I feel sorry for her. I feel so sorry for her kids.
Jack and his wife on the other hand... I feel sorry for in a different way. Jack's wife, Lureen is not as sympathetic. Her dad is well off and it's obvious that Jack is only working for him because he married Lureen. The tension between the two of them is obvious from the get go. I'll speculate why later. Jack and Lureen's father have a blowout one Thanksgiving that had the audience applauding. Lureen is very cold with Jack. Once again... Speculations later.
Over the years, as the visits become more frequent so do Jack's attempts at getting Ennis to leave his life in Wyoming and get a place with him in Texas. I'm torn by their relationship. Jack's still married, but still sleeps with men on the side. Ennis is paying child support and can't very easily up and leave the state when he has two daughters whom he still sees. So do you root for their love even though it would mean breaking up a cold marriage (but a marriage nonetheless) and seperating a father from his children? It seems somewhat selfish to me. Yet... it's what you root for because it's what you know they both dream of and want the most.
Ennis lashes out with rage against several people in the movie. I was thinking about how much it reminds me of some people who are adamantly homophobic, how typically they are so angry because of what feelings they hide deep inside. Obviously, this isn't always the case. Yet, it's what I was thinking. In one of the more moving scene Ennis asks Jack if he ever feels like everyone in town is looking at him like "they know" about him. Obviously Ennis is feeling self-conscious about sleeping with Jack. Yet not self-conscious enough to stop.
Jack utters the quoteable line, "I wish I knew how to quit you," to Ennis and I truly believe it. He really has fallen for him. A line which I shouted several times in regards to several innocuous events.
Eating Oreos... "I wish I knew how to quit you!"
Logging on to Party Poker... "I wish I knew how to quit you!"
You get the idea.
Ok... am I really spoiling anything by saying it doesn't end well? I mean, c'mon. Did we think there was going to be a happy ending to this? I won't say what happen, but I was bawling.
How they ended the movie seemed rather abrupt to me. It seemed unfinished. I mean, it definitely had an ending. Yet, even in some of the final scene it opens up a few more issue with questions to be asked.
The movie was a little slow in parts. I don't think it was anything that detracted form the movie. I just wish that they would've showed more of some scenes and less of others. There were many interactions between Jack and his wife that I think were truncated for the overall story to be told. There could always be more scenes about the struggle that Ennis felt and his attraction towards Jack.
I'm only going to mention the sex briefly because... honestly... it's not that big of a deal. They have sex. It's not pornographic. There is barely sixty seconds of sex in the entire movie both hetero and homo. If it wasn't for the fact that it was hot man-on-man action it could easily be found on almost any mid-week drama. If you are too prudish or insecure about your own sexuality to see two men kissing then by all means go see The Chronicles of Narnia. It kicks ass too. Just beware of the half-naked goatman. I hear he doesn't wear pants!
Ok... time for a little speculation. Obviously, there are some spoilers within. Do you think Lureen's father knew Jack also slept with men? Do you think that contributed to his contempt for Jack or was it simpler than that? Because he wasn't from money, perhaps?
By the end do you think Lureen knew that Jack was sleeping with men? Ennis was conscious of people making such speculations, and reacted with anger and frustration. Jack seemed non-chalant about it and went about his business as he saw fit to do with no worry of any consequences. Who handled it better?
I look forward to comments and your own critiques! |
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I posted this @ 1/01/2006 12:51:00 PM.............Need a link?..........
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