Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Directed by Ang Lee. Starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Linda Cardellini, Randy Quaid, Kate Mara, Peter McRobbie. [R]

Ledger and Gyllenhaal play a couple of cowboys who spend a summer in 1963 Wyoming herding sheep; all by themselves on the titular mountain, their gradual friendship deepens both emotionally and physically as they fall in love. When the job is done, they agree to leave this “one-shot thing” behind on Brokeback, but even after each one gets married and starts raising kids, they begin meeting up a few times a year to continue their relationship, so consumed with longing that they can’t “quit” each other. Adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story (by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana) is too often marginalized as the “gay cowboy movie,” but it runs much deeper than that, centering on the way the two men feel, their inability to articulate and rectify those feelings out of fear (especially Ledger’s Ennis, haunted by a memory from his childhood), and the hurt that spreads between them and to others as a result. Ennis is guarded and close-lipped, and Ledger calibrates the physical expressions for this character remarkably well, while Gyllenhaal’s Jack is more open and willing, the rebuffs taking a toll without ever fully defeating his spirit; they’re more than just lonely without one another—they’re incomplete. Lee directs the material with sensitivity and measured grace, allowing the characters to amble at their own pace, and maintaining enough distance to avoid tear-jerking melodrama, even during the devastating ending. If there’s a casualty in the storytelling strategy, however, it’s Williams (as Ennis’ wife), who gets more or less forgotten in the later scenes even though her heartbreak is nearly as compelling as the central relationship. Wound up being the victim of multiple controversies, from bigoted accusations of promoting the “gay agenda” to the assumption of homophobia among members of the Academy for allowing the pitiful Crash to beat it on Oscar night for Best Picture; fortunately, not all members get to vote in other categories, and the film picked up honors for its direction, writing, and score (by Gustavo Santaolalla). David Harbour and Anna Faris appear in one scene as a married couple.

92/100