Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Two sheepherders -- Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar (Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger) -- meet and fall in love while working together near Wyoming's Brokeback Mountain in 1963. Over the next 20 years, their lives take different courses: Jack becomes a rodeo cowboy while Ennis remains a ranch hand. Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid and Michelle Williams co-star. Ang Lee directs screenwriter Larry McMurtry's adaptation of a short story by E. Annie Proulx.

My Two Cents: Why the hype? This poorly constructed B-movie dances between pastoral epic and gritty art film, while everyone but Ledger dials up the campy over-acting to beyond Lucas-esque levels.

NetFlix Rank: Didn't Like It
IMDB Rank: 6/10

Further thoughts:

I'll say this, and only this, about the controversial nature of this film: if its intent was to make some sort of social commentary about alternative lifestyles, then why did it choose to spotlight a couple of dishonorable, adultering cowboys?

Ledger earns points for his understated, brooding performance, but the rest is over-marketed mediocrity. In what alternate universe does a boring, unimaginative love story about characters as one-dimensional as these warrant Oscar buzz? It's a "Me Tarzan, you John" relationship that goes nowhere over the course of two-plus hours, which honestly feel closer to the two decades of elapsed time.

Give me a break.