Brokeback Mountain. Please don’ skim over this purely because of the title. This movie is a terrible movie and it Is for several reasons, and not just because of its subject matter.
The films major problems are with its lead actors. I did not enjoy the performance of Heath Ledger or Jake Gyllenhaal at all in this movie. Again, not because of them being gay, but because of either over or under acting. Nothing quite was unique about either of these two guys. Jake overacted too much, making smaller, powerful scenes be too much and exaggerated everything, and Heath just underplayed everything. Yes, Ennis de Mar is a soft-spoken man, but there could have been a lot more that Heath could have done.
Where the movie really falters are the endless montages. The movie adds to the short story in one way and that is by relentlessly showing us a series of quick glimpses and shots of these two actors and their wives, or of them out in the landscape. There isn’t much build onto this. Plus, it overemphasizes the terribly written music. With all of this silence in between scenes, we are forces to hear this music that is just not worthy of either a western or romance film. How this film won all of its awards and got its nominations, I will never know.
The only things that I could say were great were the actresses Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway. My belief of Hathaway is that she is good only when she doesn’t surround herself with tremendous British talent such as Alice in Wonderland or Becoming Jane. When other American actors are acting with her, it seems like she is always the great spark that out shines them all (because she has an American accent, not a British one). In Brokeback Mountain, she does a great job. It’s a shame that we see so little of her in the film considering this is one of her better performances. Then there is Michelle Williams who plays tragic very well. I can’t wait to see her as Marilyn Monroe this year. But just like Hathaway, I really do think we needed to see more of her.
In a nutshell, not worth seeing, not just because of the gay romance, but because I really do think this was badly filmed.
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