insaneneko (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
insaneneko) wrote2006-01-06 08:21 am
insaneneko) wrote2006-01-06 08:21 am
more brokeback
I was reading the paper this morning and came across a review of Brokeback Mountain. The reviewer gave it 3-1/2 stars (which I don't think I would), and yet what he had to say in the review made me nod in agreement. I felt the same way in a lot of the points he made. I found the review by Ty Burr online here.
The first paragraph made me nod. After a night's sleep and more clarity I can see that Heath Ledger was really, really great. I totally agree with the reviewer on this point:
The actor hunches over and pulls his emotions under his canvas coat; he doesn't age so much as slowly cave in. That's fitting: Ennis is both ennobled and shamed by feelings he doesn't possess words to describe. ''This thing we have" is the closest he comes, and yet it's the only real part of his life, despite the damage left in its wake. Ledger turns the classic iconography of the Western male -- a cowboy hat pulled low, a measured drawl that says no more than it absolutely has to -- into protective coloring. The genius of the performance is in how little he shows and how much he suggests.
That Ennis "caves in" is right. Towards the end of the movie, when he's eating alone in the dinner and the girlfriend (?) he kind of just...ditched...tries to communicate with him--he's so sunken in it's almost heartbreaking.
But more to the point, the reviewer articulated why I can't say I love the film: "The intimacy just happens to unfold...in ways that bring tragedy to the surface while keeping the audience at a certain remove." I can't love a movie that keeps me at such a distance. And also: "''Brokeback' may be...too elegantly dispassionate in its study of choked passion." *raises hand* That's me. Or at least, a good part of me. In the end, I have more positives to say about it then negatives, because it did resonate in some small, but surprisingly deep, way:
The movie sticks with you, though, as does its belief that love is more important than gender or culture or anything -- that it's important enough to be treasured in secret if necessary
I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Even if it meticulously shuts me to be an observer, instead of letting me into its world.
The first paragraph made me nod. After a night's sleep and more clarity I can see that Heath Ledger was really, really great. I totally agree with the reviewer on this point:
The actor hunches over and pulls his emotions under his canvas coat; he doesn't age so much as slowly cave in. That's fitting: Ennis is both ennobled and shamed by feelings he doesn't possess words to describe. ''This thing we have" is the closest he comes, and yet it's the only real part of his life, despite the damage left in its wake. Ledger turns the classic iconography of the Western male -- a cowboy hat pulled low, a measured drawl that says no more than it absolutely has to -- into protective coloring. The genius of the performance is in how little he shows and how much he suggests.
That Ennis "caves in" is right. Towards the end of the movie, when he's eating alone in the dinner and the girlfriend (?) he kind of just...ditched...tries to communicate with him--he's so sunken in it's almost heartbreaking.
But more to the point, the reviewer articulated why I can't say I love the film: "The intimacy just happens to unfold...in ways that bring tragedy to the surface while keeping the audience at a certain remove." I can't love a movie that keeps me at such a distance. And also: "''Brokeback' may be...too elegantly dispassionate in its study of choked passion." *raises hand* That's me. Or at least, a good part of me. In the end, I have more positives to say about it then negatives, because it did resonate in some small, but surprisingly deep, way:
The movie sticks with you, though, as does its belief that love is more important than gender or culture or anything -- that it's important enough to be treasured in secret if necessary
I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Even if it meticulously shuts me to be an observer, instead of letting me into its world.