What the Flick

So, up we go to BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, director Ang Lee's (SENSE AND SENSIBILITY; CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) latest look at the power of love. Set variably in the gorgeous wild mountain country of Wyoming (played convincingly by Alberta, Canada) and the more depressing dying small towns at their feet, the movie tells the story of Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), a taciturn man of small expectations, and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), a rodeo rider and dreamer, as they meet in the summer of 1963 herding sheep on the mountain of the title, fall calamitously in love, and then try to return to the lives they had before. Ennis marries his high-school sweetheart (Michelle Williams, a native Montanan, in a great performance; BTW congrats to Heath and Michelle on the new baby) and fathers 2 daughters while Jack takes off on the rodeo circuit and ends up in Texas, married to the daughter (Anne Hathaway, not playing a princess!) of a wealthy farm equipment salesman. Several years after that first summer, Jack looks up Ennis and heads back to Wyoming for the first of many visits, starting them down a road that leads to their most ecstatic and tragic times. It takes a while for the movie to get going; I never realized sheepherding up a mountain was so boring. More importantly, at first their relationship seemed more like poses for a dude ranch ad, and I didn't buy it. But it grew on me the way they grew on each other, and by the end (the story follows them for about 15 years) it was as big and heartbreaking and overwhelming as Wyoming itself. I love Jake, but in this movie Heath Ledger is the heart and soul; he is shockingly good and seems a different man than the actor who charmed us in the rousing but silly A KNIGHT'S TALE. I think some percentage of people will avoid this movie because it involves a love story between two men; you don't have to listen to me, but that's a shame. (Check out this article on the film's overall gay quotient.) BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN may not be Romeo & Juliet, but it explores the same territory: the pain of lovers kept apart for arbitrary reasons and the difficult and often tragic decisions they make to be together. If you have ever loved anyone, it will break your heart.

From Wyoming to Iraq, just like Dick Cheney! JARHEAD is based on the memoir of a marine (Anthony Swofford) from California who served in the Gulf War of 1991 (for a truly interesting read about the Gulf War, check out Michael Kelly's Martyrs' Day). It is notable mostly for its depiction of the ends boys will go to to amuse themselves when confronted with a thousand square miles of empty desert, a threat of war overhanging their heads, and no TiVo. The movie follows Tony (yes, Jake) as he joins the USMC, goes through training at Camp Pendleton (the existence of which, along miles of beautiful San Diego County coast that appears from I-5 as open space, always makes me hum "From the Halls of Montezuma" as I drive by), and is sent to the Middle East to wait for the order to take back Kuwait from Saddam Hussein. Most of the movie takes place in the Saudi Arabian desert as the soldiers wait...and wait...and wait some more. Oddly, the movie is boring in a way that helps the viewer experience that odd brew of heightened expectation and ennui that the troops must have felt. In between drills with their proud and disciplined drill master (Jamie Foxx), they play pranks, lose girls back home, show off photos of new babies, play football, drink purloined liquor, go stir crazy, and despite themselves, grow up. Though I think the movie (like the book on which it was based) was meant to be critical of this process, what it left with me instead was more respect for the individuals who volunteer for this crazy job. All the shouting and discipline and drilling that go into making a Marine - hey, it ain't for everybody, but those who get through it are different than that guy you dated last week who's biggest challenge so far has been learning to do his own laundry. It's not a great movie, but it isn't the worst, and it had Jake wearing nothing but a strategically placed Santa hat.

Finally, in PROOF Jake plays a mathematics grad student studying the work of a famous Chicago mathematician (Anthony Hopkins) who has lost a battle to dementia and is under the care of his math genius/slightly nutty daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow). Dad dies, bossy big sister (Hope Davis) arrives from NY, decides Gwyneth is nuts (and not just because she keeps wearing the same ratty sweater), and wants to take her back to NY. Jake likes Gwyn (despite her really bad attitude), Gwyn likes Jake (doesn't everyone? And here he wears glasses, so is double-cute), together they must prove that she, and not her dotty dad, wrote the groundbreaking "proof" of the title, thus showing bossy big sis that Gwyn deserves respect, not relocation to a private hospital. There's nothing really wrong with this movie, but at the same time, there's nothing great either. Why is bossy big sis so determined to sell the house 2 days after the funeral?? Could she have some sympathy for the brainiac sister who's been living with and caring for (and giving up her schooling for) dear old Dad? Hope Davis is such a good actress that you really hate her in this role. Meanwhile, you wanted to slap Gwyneth and shout "Snap out of it!" You could sort of understand her lack of energy and tentative grasp on reality -- she'd just spent 3 years with her dad as he lost his mind. But you still wanted her to take more interest in her own fate, and certainly in Jake, who was practically throwing himself on her.