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February 07, 2006

Make Room for One More in the Classics Section

One of the reasons that I escape the bustle of the everyday world by heading to dozens of movies a year, aside from my complete devotion to the realm of Hollywood, is that once in a blue moon I run across a film that is pure and utter magic. I’m not talking about the magic of a good movie, not even a great movie; I’m talking about the aura of wonder one gets from conciously realizing the presence of a movie that will be affecting you for the rest of your life. Lawrence of Arabia, Citizen Kane, Chinatown, The Lord of the Rings, all of these movies embody this trait, and they now need to move over and welcome a new member to their fold: Brokeback Mountain.

To call the film a masterpiece would cheapen it; it’s more of a cosmic revelation.

The story interweaves two men, both complicated by their feelings toward each other who become part of something much larger than themselves. Even from that stunning, wordless opening shot, there’s a sense of determination in both of their eyes. Director Ang Lee obviously had looked at Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Goodfellas for plot pacing, although these two movies couldn’t have less in common with Brokeback. He makes the film’s central focus always these two lovers and alternates between both the world that they exist in, and the one in which they truly live.

Cinematography takes an lackadaisical, almost languid approach to the first half of the film among the hallowed greens of Brokeback Mountain, but subsequently becomes more focused as it wrenches obstacles into these two men’s paths.

Great epics also often have the secret ingredient that most simply fine epics can’t muster: exemplary acting. Brokeback stays true to formula. Jake Gyllenhaal is wonderful portraying a dreamer without hope, Michelle Williams simmers as a woman on the verge of collapse, and Roberta Maxwell excels as a mother who masks heartbreak with cherry cake and brown bags. The true star of the film, however, is Heath Ledger, who turns in the best male lead performance since Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient.

Wrestling with his own inadequacies and the strength that he can never quite muster, Ledger shows that beneath that wry Australian grin, there is an artist lurking after all. I had my doubts after Four Feathers. His interaction with Gyllenhaal is not forced, but rather natural and deep. Like all great movie romance, it tortures as well as delights. When Gyllenhaal isn’t with Ledger onscreen, the audience can feel his pangs of loneliness which echo onto everyone that he sees. It’s a trick that almost all actors wish to pull off, but few rarely do.
The plot runs smoothly, intertwining multiple storylines. Like Casablanca, every scene passes as if it will someday become a classic, every line is concentrated and necessary, and the silences meld into beautiful arches which bring the story together. There is no moment in the film that becomes false or uninteresting.

So, while Brokeback Mountain still graces theaters, make your way to the best movie of the year. So rarely does a film embrace so fully the ideal of love and pull off such an effervescent and transcendent tale; take advantage of this and venture into the storied hills of Brokeback Mountain.

Posted by dwright at February 7, 2006 10:42 PM

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