BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN II – Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Review: Part I
Much of the publicity surrounding Brokeback Mountain has focused on presenting Ledger and Gyllenhaal as hetero off-screen studs playing homo on-screen studs, as if "acting gay" — a couple of rough kissing scenes and a simulated sex act — is per se both a display of thespian courage and an example of great screen acting. Whatever those actors’ sexual orientation may be, perhaps it’s true that they have been brave to tackle those roles.
That said, in their scenes together Ledger and Gyllenhaal are utterly incapable of conveying, whether through a spark in the eye or a quivering in the voice, the passion that Ennis and Jack are supposed to feel for one another. The chemistry between the two stars, an absolute must in such a film, is painfully lacking in Brokeback Mountain. (For real chemistry between two guys on-screen, check out Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke in Stephen Frears‘ 1985 drama My Beautiful Laundrette, or Yehuda Levi and Ohad Knoller in Eytan Fox’s 2002 — talk about subversive — anti-military drama Yossi & Jagger.)
There are other problems with Ledger’s and Gyllenhaal’s performances as well, though of the two Ledger comes off best. Despite a few lapses, most notably during Ennis’ emotional confrontation with Jack near the film’s finale, the Australian Ledger creates a convincing Wyoming cowpoke, and his dramatic range is at times quite impressive. Ledger’s final moment in Brokeback Mountain, for instance, is nothing short of masterful. On the down side, he never makes his prototypal silent cowboy either mysterious or alluring enough to justify Jack’s perennial longing for him.
Gyllenhaal, for his part, succeeds only in showing the earnest efforts of a mellow big-city actor trying to pass for a rough cowboy. (In Proulx’s short story, those men are not only truly rough, they’re also unattractive. Ennis and Jack have been considerably softened and prettified for the screen.) Moreover, the role of the emotionally torn Jack Twist is way beyond Gyllenhaal’s thus far limited range. When Jack has a climactic outburst during his last meeting with Ennis at Brokeback, Gyllenhaal gives his all but, tripping on his erratic Texanized accent, he fails to fully express Jack’s final eruption of anger, sadness, and despair. Also, though in their mid-20s, neither actor is at all believable as a teenager in the beginning of the film or as a man in his late 30s at the film’s conclusion. (The poor makeup job, especially on Gyllenhaal’s face, doesn’t help matters any.)
Ironically, Ledger has great chemistry in his scenes with (his real-life partner) Michelle Williams, who, as Ennis’ frustrated wife, Alma, provides the film with its most touching performance. Williams’ reaction when she sees her husband kissing Jack in front of their apartment building is a classic moment of great screen acting; the actress alone gives pathos to a scene that could easily have derailed into farce. She makes palpable Alma’s sense of confusion, knowing too much while being incapable of expressing her feelings to her husband or possibly even to herself. The reasons for her silence are never explained, but the actress carries her simmering resentment with such dignity that her motives almost don’t matter.
As cuckolded wife number two, Lureen, Anne Hathaway has some good light moments at first, but once her character goes dramatic she is thrown completely out of her element. On the other hand, Randy Quaid is outstanding in a few brief scenes as the tough rancher who gets Ennis and Jack their fateful summer job, while Kate Mara does a lovely turn as Ennis’ eldest daughter, Alma Jr.
One way of looking at Brokeback Mountain is to interpret the feelings those men have for one another as a love less for who they really are than for what they represent. McMurtry, Ossana, and Lee make sure we understand that heterosexual couples lead a hellish life, what with obnoxious in-laws, bratty little children, unfulfilling jobs, and worst of all, no one around the house with whom tough guys can do a little macho wrestling. (Michelle Williams’ Woman of the West is just too damn soft for such fun stuff. I swear, where’s Mercedes McCambridge when you most need her?)
In Proulx’s short story, the two lovers never return to Brokeback after their initial meeting, though the locale remains the symbol of their thwarted relationship. In the film, they return to that serenely beautiful landscape each time they can escape from their respective real lives. One "negative" question the film avoids is: How long would Ennis and Jack’s love have lasted had they chosen to spend more than a couple of times a year together?
Instead, Brokeback Mountain opts for a "positive" — though, admittedly, equally valid — question. How much more fulfilling would have been the lives of those two cowboys had the pathologically uptight Ennis gotten over his fear of coming out of the closet? Even if their love was not to last, they would at least have known that they did try.
In the film’s heart-wrenching final scene, as Gustavo Santaolalla’s strings play one of the saddest slow crescendos on record, Ennis is by himself in his trailer, with the life he chose not to live represented by two blood-stained shirts and a faded picture of Brokeback Mountain hanging on his closet door. Outside, out of his reach, lies a patch of green grass.
"What other dungeon is so dark as one’s own heart!" Nathaniel Hawthorne inquires in The House of the Seven Gables. "What jailer so inexorable as one’s self!" The uninvolving Ennis & Jack romance may form the core of Brokeback Mountain, but what gives the film its emotional resonance is the underlying tragedy of a self-imposed unrealized life. Through Ennis’ self-imprisonment, Brokeback Mountain reminds us all — regardless of sexual orientation — of the opportunities we have chosen to miss in our lives in order to conform. And of how our existence has been diminished as a result.
3 Academy Award Wins
Best Direction: Ang Lee
Best Original Score: Gustavo Santaolalla
Best Adapted Screenplay: Dianna Ossana, Larry McMurtry
5 Academy Award Nominations
Best Picture: Diana Ossana, James Schamus
Best Actor: Heath Ledger
Best Supporting Actor: Jake Gyllenhaal
Best Supporting Actress: Michelle Williams
Best Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto
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Tags: Ang Lee, Anne Hathaway, Brokeback Mountain, Diana Ossana, E. Annie Proulx, Film Reviews, Gay Interest, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Larry McMurtry, Michelle Williams
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