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Review:
 Ang
Lee has always been a risk taker, When he made “The Ice Storm” a
few years back, and before that “Sense and Sensibility,” he broke
stereotypes of genre and race and went to places no one expected
someone from Taiwan would go.
Here he does it again, but with mixed results.
The year is 1963, and a rancher named Joe Aguirre(Randy Quaid)
needs a couple of shepherds willing to break the environmental
protection laws and herd the sheep in a National Park. What he
gets are Ennis Del Mar(Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist(Jake
Gyllenhaal), two down on their luck cowpokes who really need the
money, and are willing to camp out on months on end.
So they do. Summers in Montana are short, and up on Brokeback
mountain, it gets real cold even in July and August. Ennis and
Jack are forced to break the rules and share a tent. Their true
natures break out and we discover that we're in the middle of the
first big budget gay western. Love is in the air, but their secret
is discovered, and soon, too soon, our loverboys are forced to go
their separate ways.
But both men believe themselves straight. Ennis was going to marry
Alma(Michelle Williams) before this all started and he does. Jack
goes on the rodeo circuit when Joe won't give him another summer
up in the wilderness. Years go by. Ennis and Alma reproduce, all
seems well despite the poverty of the situation.
Then the inevitable happens, and Alma accidentally observes the
happy reunion. Everything goes downhill from there. The film is
about being in the closet, and adultery. If you're married and
have a gay relationship on the side, is that any less sordid than
having a mistress. Jack wants Ennis to leave Alma and the kids,
but he just can't do it, and the longer the relationship goes on,
the more Alma the kids, and eventually Jack's wife Lureen(Anne
Hathaway) suffer.
The thing is too long. We don't really care about the two leads as
much as their spouses and children. We want this to end one way or
another and have it do that soon. But it doesn't. It goes on and
on and on and…
This is a noble experiment, but one which has failed. Too bad. I
thought “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” was a timeless classic
and expected more.
Eric Lurio
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