597. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Starring: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams

Director: Ang Lee

Running Time: 134 mins

Brokeback Mountain is an American film about two men who fall into a deep, but forbidden relationship, and try to fit in an live their lives as others in their surroundings, however they cannot stay apart from one another.

This film may be unique, and highly sensitive, but it is seriously boring. The storytelling is extremely dull, it has a very slow pace, and for the best part of two hours, it rarely manages to grab you and engross you in a story which should be completely captivating.

That’s not to say that it is an impressive and unique film. Nowadays, there are still so few films that talk about homosexual relationships so openly, but the way that this film bucks that trend is very important, and it shows the two men’s relationship in a real way as any romance film would.

Also, there were a few points in the film where I was fully engrossed, however these weren’t parts to do with the romance itself. Instead, I was more interested in how others reacted to the knowledge of this gay relationship, and how it resulted in making fitting in for these two men even more difficult.

However, the rest of the film is incredibly boring. A romance told in possibly the slowest and overly detailed way ever, it takes ages to get going, and once it eventually does, it’s a little too graphic and disturbing to watch, which really ruined some parts of the story for me.

Finally, the characters and actors weren’t too amazing either. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal were convincing enough, but never likeable enough for you to have such a strong emotional connection with them, while the secondary characters were an opportunity for you to see into this story from a different perspective, were still not well developed enough.

Overall, this gets a 7.1, because although it is an impressive film, it’s never emotionally enthralling nor particularly intriguing to watch.