Brokeback Mountain

I saw "Brokeback Mountain" yesterday. It was, in many ways, a deeply touching film; the camera work was beautiful, the story one of universal human failing. But I was not blown away, and this is why. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall had no real chemistry. Maybe because they are both straight, they simply could not fully realize their characters. Ledger's character, because he was more fully realized in the screenplay, became more believable as the story progressed. I thought Gyllenhall--who resembles a not-so-bright frat boy--was just one-dimensional. The women, the wives of both men, were excellent. What is creating such a sensation? The subject matter, of course, is titillating, and for the first time we see two "gay" characters as men, with their awkward machismo, rather than the prancing nellies one is used to seeing on television and movies. That is something commendable, I think. But I believe the hyperbolic response to this movie is inspired by the kind of sentimentalism that seems to just touch its edges. It could have been far more mawkish. So I give it three stars.