Carmike has grudgingly brought to town the year’s most-talked-about motion picture, the freshly minted Oscar nominee, Brokeback Mountain.

      You’d think the cineplex would be happy to have a highly publicized and well-reviewed movie on one of its nine screens, but Brokeback’s arrival was accompanied by an unusually tepid statement from management in Tuesday’s paper.  They wanted to make sure everyone knew this was definitely not a response to any local interest– only 50 people had asked about it.

      Oh?  How many hundreds contacted the theatre to request The Hostel?

      Whatever.  A lot more than 50 people showed up for Brokeback’s opening – I gave up counting when it was clear that way more than 100 Aberdonians chose to pay full evening prices to see this movie at the 7:00 Friday showing.

      What did they get for their money?  Nothing less than a modern classic, with strong acting performances, stunning cinematic panoramas, and a tragic story of star-crossed love set inside a contemporary Western. 

      And yes, Brokeback Mountain is an R-rated, gay-themed film that breaks previous boundaries on what can be shown between men.  Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal provide a far more convincing and powerful representation of homosexual love than, say, Colin Ferrell’s awkward embrace of Jared Leto in last year’s Alexander. The gay theme wouldn’t have anything to do with Carmike’s diffidence in showing Brokeback, would it?

      Actually, the film is almost traditional in its exploration of what more sensational films would trumpet as “forbidden love.”  However sympathetic it may be to its gay protagonists, Brokeback sets up a relationship is ultimately tragic and sad – which are not the same things – because of the character’s internal flaws, although it is also an indictment of a homophobic society that creates external circumstances making those flaws more dangerous.

      Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) are hired for the summer to herd sheep in the Wyoming high country.  Gorgeous scenes of the mountains, and of hundreds of sheep in motion (who would have thought they were so photogenic?), suggest the attraction of this lonely and hard life. 

      Gradually the men come to know each other through laconic conversations on family, religion, and life goals.  Nothing develops until one night Ennis, too drunk to return to the high meadows where the sheep graze, remains in camp.  One thing leads to another, and the two make rough, physical – though fully clothed – love.  The next morning, Ennis leaves, with nary a word passing about what happened the night before.

      When they do discuss the event, they are clear. Ennis: “That’s a one-shot thing we got going on.” Jack: “Nobody’s business but ours.” Ennis: “You know I ain’t queer.” Jack: “Me neither.”

      Alas, no – they can’t keep away from each other, but spend the summer in an idyllic romance, including more explicit love than that first encounter.  Called back early because of an impending storm, or the boss’s (Randy Quaid) guess that they aren’t just watching the sheep, Jack heads off to rodeo and Ennis to marriage.

    Thereafter, we witness 20 years of their lives in a series of short scenes.  Ennis marries, has children, divorces when his wife gives him an ultimatum, makes a hardscrabble life as a ranch hand.  Jack rides rodeo bulls (not very well), marries a barrel rider, and lives well off his wife’s family’s implement business.  The men come together sporadically for passionate love, usually in the scenic outdoors.

      Over time, though, the exhilaration of the early relationship gives way to the tensions, internal and external, so ultimately we see Ennis and Jack bickering more than lovemaking.  Like a physical addiction, what was once a pleasure has become, in many ways, an obligation.  It is not far from here to the final tragedy, leaving one man alone to deal with his feelings for his departed lover.

      Ledger turns in a remarkable performance against type, richly deserving his best-actor nomination.  Gyllenhaal is almost as good in a supporting role, as is Michelle Williams as Ennis’s long-suffering wife, Alma – both also received nominations.  Williams stands out particularly in a scene where she has just witnessed Ennis and Jack reuniting with an unmistakably passionate kiss after a four-year separation. Her expression is a tour-de-force of wordless acting, as pain, confusion, and revulsion blend together, along with a smoldering jealous anger as she looks at Jack.

      Later, we see Alma waiting for Ennis to return from a tryst.  Shot against a bare wall the color of overcooked hard-boiled egg yolk, she stares blankly into space.  Like most of the scenes in “civilization,” the setting is bleak, empty – a stark contrast to the lush richness of the high country where Ennis and Jack repeatedly retire to pursue their forbidden relationship. 

     This is all marvelous film-making, in some ways reminiscent of the mute suffering and hardscrabble life of screenwriter Larry McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show.  If you appreciate serious, well-made film-making do not – repeat, not – be kept from this film by concerns about its “gay theme.”

      By the way, of the five Oscar-nominated movies, Crash played Aberdeen for two weeks last spring, Munich for two weeks last month, and now Brokeback has opened.  Is it too much to ask for the other two nominees, Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck, get here before Oscar night?

 This review appeared in the Aberdeen American News on February 5, 2006.

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