Welcome to Brokeback Mountain

To review Brokeback Mountain I had to keep in mind two different things: the movie’s undeniable cinematic quality and its political assignations. Here’s the thing: Ang Lee’s "gay cowboy movie" (I strongly dislike that easy description) disappointed me, and here's why.

The movie follows the story of two cowboys (Heath Ledger’s repressed Ennis Del Mar, and Jake Gyllenhaal’s optimistic Jack Twist) who are sent to wrangle sheep on a Wyoming mountainside in 1963 – the titular Brokeback Mountain – and end up falling in love with each other.

The story then unfolds over two decades, during which the two men marry women they don’t love (played by Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway), and live their lives looking forward to the "fishing" trips that serve as their clandestine journeys back to Brokeback Mountain, Ennis and Jack’s love’s safe haven.

The movie’s quite good-looking and well paced, thanks to Lee’s skilled direction and script, and boasts revealing performances by Williams, Gyllenhaal, and Ledger especially. The love story is epic, but then again the movie isn’t. I’m afraid that it is just much too introspective and its emotional climax arrives much too late.

The script, based on Annie Proulx’s award-winning 1997 New Yorker short story, while full of emotion, lacks the one redeeming scene that would’ve made Brokeback Mountain otherwise great. Something was missing – no, not the sex…that we get, and it’s honest and dignified – and that is why I was disappointed.

For this I cannot jump on the Brokeback Mountain bandwagon. Many in the GLBT community see this movie as a step in the right direction, yet I found it to be more comfortable than comforting. Read on as my very special guest, E! Online’s Ted Casablanca, and I discuss Brokeback Mountain.

First let me thank you for doing this. It’s the first time I’ve invited someone to discuss a movie with me – I figured it would be a holiday treat. So, we've both seen the movie, and to be honest I didn't think it lived up to the hype that surrounded it...and something was off with the story. What did you think about it?

Ted Casablanca: It’s not that it didn’t live up to its hype – it’s quite glorious, actually, just gorgeous stuff. But, I’m friggin’ sick of the tragic end to gay movies. It’s enough.

I know! Take away the gay factor, and it's Cold Mountain. The end was what it was, but what did you think of the core relationship? Was it believable or not?

TC: Believable for 1963, for sure. But, I’m sick of stories that still have us stuck back when it was okay to keep your sexuality tighter than Nicole Kidman’s face. Enough, already! Gimme some damn progress here, don’t ya think?

Totally – so far we've had to settle for touch-and-go or cartoonish portrayals in shows like Six Feet Under and Queer as Folk. Transamerica, though, shines a new light on the transsexual set…but I digress. Brokeback's being touted as "daring," but I don't get how it is so. It's this "feel-good" movie – for Hollywood. Do you think a gay story with a happy ending is still far away?

TC: I disagree – I don’t think Six Feet Under and Queer as Folk were cartoonish. The latter maybe was soap-opera-ish, but why the hell not? It’s sexy stuff. And the former was some of the most poignant and real writing on TV, with the gays, as well. They weren’t mainstream like Brokeback is though. They were cable shows with cult-like audiences. Brokeback is yet another big-screen stab at portraying gay life in this country. But, like Philadelphia and The Birdcage before it, Brokeback joins the insulting parade of, if you’re gay, you: A) Have AIDS, B) wear a dress, C) die tragically, or D) all of the above. It’s sickening.

True. Let's talk about the acting a little. Personally, I think Heath did a tremendous job. And Jake was so quietly and increasingly angry and frustrated. What did you make of them?

TC: Heath was magnificent. He’s really woken up with this role. I guess he got tired of hanging out with Tara Reid in bathroom stalls. Oddly, he’s the one I was most moved by, as he’s the more stoic of the two – I mean, Jake was ready to settle down and buy a house together after the first time he got poked! Oh, please. I thought Heath was great portraying a gay man who didn’t want to be a gay man. There’s so many of them around in real life today, it’s just depressing to watch, at least for me.

You’re terrible.... Heath was immersed in the role. Could it have been because Michelle Williams was giving him something to be inspired by? [Ledger and Williams met on set and are now married.] Isn't it funny that of the Dawson's Creek alumni, she's the one posed to perhaps win an Oscar the first? I would've bet on Katie Holmes, but not anymore.

TC: Don’t hold your vitamin-charged breath, but remember, everybody said the same thing about Nicole when she and Tom Cruise first hooked up, and look at what happened with that broad! Yes, Michelle’s great, but it’s just such a puny role.

She was so raw and intense, though, unlike Anne Hathaway and her bad wig. Love the two broads, but their characters, too, suffer from this disappointing case of arrested development the movie seems to have plenty of. For every "daring" move, one oh-so tamed followed. Can you tell I didn't find this movie satisfying or what!

TC: Hey, lay off Anne’s wig. I’m from Texas – hair’s important to us. Aren’t you gay? Don’t you know things like that?

I'm just saying a little aging makeup would've helped – how’s that for gay? Let me tell you about what else I did like. I liked how honest Jack was. He knew his love life was to be limited, but he still went for it. And I agree with what you said about Heath’s portrayal. And I liked especially how their love was shown to be real and enduring in spite of everything else. Love's a funny thing, no?

TC: I wouldn’t know. Can’t we switch gears back to hair and homophobia? I seem to have more experience there.

Oh, come on. Do you think the movie will show come Oscar time? Cold Mountain didn't, and Brokeback is very Cold Mountain (the pedigreed filmmakers and actors, the doomed-lovers story, the majestic scenery…).

TC: Yeah, but, don’t forget the all-enticing homo card, which – when "straight" actors are playing the roles – the Academy loves! Cold Mountain didn’t have that – it just had Nicole’s Botox. Remember, the Academy has a friggin’ orgasm every time the heteros play us as murderers, victims, perverts, deviants, cross-dressers, and just plain freaks. Can you say Hilary Swank or Charlize Theron?

I can, and I'll you raise you a Tom Hanks. Going back to Michelle's chances, I got two words for you: Judi Dench. She pulled quite the upset when she won for her 10 minutes in Shakespeare in Love. Heath's performance is quite strong, and though he's not in my Top 5 of the year, he's in the short list. It's been a very gay year at the movies, wouldn't you say, with Capote, Brokeback, and Transamerica. Is it a trend or is it progress?

TC: It’s guilt. Hollywood realizes it’s shoving it to the pooftahs every once in a while – so it puts out the obligatory Philadelphia or Kevin Kline flick [In & Out], then it’s back to self-hating gay Hollywood exec biz as usual.

It’s a grim outlook but oh-so real. I know a lot of people in the GLBT community are beside themselves with this one coming out, but I can't help but see right through it. It's a fantastic story to tell, but something was missing, one pivotal scene, you know, some warmth. I do recognize, however, the message the movie sends out, that love is this force of nature that can’t be helped. The "gay cowboy movie" thing that surrounds Brokeback is both its best asset and its worst liability – so sensational, so salacious, so periphrastic.

TC: It’s homo-lite. No wonder the self-hating fruits are singing its praises: it still allows them to stay in the closet – don’t be too threatening, now! – and yet hook into some sort of pathetic self-esteem-raising, politically correct carousing in the process. It’s so predictable. And, yes, I agree; there needed to be at least one self-affirming scene of warmth, something to at least make us believe why these men would keep meeting on the sly for all those years. Wasn’t there. Just like the soul of the movie wasn’t there.

So, for as much as Brokeback Mountain disappointed me, I’m glad it’s out there. I suppose I come from a generation that’s less and less rattled by gay-ness, which is why that "gay cowboy movie" thing bothers me so. The movie’s got plenty of heart, but that heart, much like the characters, isn’t allowed to beat.

My Rating **1/2

Photos: Focus Features.