WARNING: If you haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain, don’t read that part of this post. I give stuff away.
John and I watched two movies this weekend, fully expecting to really like them both. Neither of them really did it for us, though. We didn’t dislike either of them, but I guess we were expecting more.
We were really disappointed in Dan in Real Life. We just kept coming up with different (maybe better, but definitely preferable) ways to handle the situations he found himself in. It was still enjoyable, but it was a little frustrating to watch. We decided to watch Dan in Real Life Saturday night because John wasn’t in the mood for gay cowboys.
We watched Brokeback Mountain Sunday night. You know, I really did like that movie. My only complaint (John’s, too) is that I didn’t see the point where their friendship turned into love. I liked the friendship, I liked how it was developing, but then one night because it was cold they decided to have sex? It didn’t feel like they developed those feelings. The plot needed it, so it had to happen right then. We had the same complaint about the short story. And some of the early tenderness felt underdeveloped. These are tough, taciturn cowboys. It doesn’t feel right to have one of them reach out to stroke the other’s cheek right away. Later, sure. Not at first. So the beginning of the relationship felt rushed, I guess is what I’m saying. By the time they reunited after four years, I was invested in it and I didn’t have any more problems with the movie. And I loved what they did with the shirts. When Ennis takes the shirts from Jack’s parents’ house, his shirt is inside Jack’s. When we see the shirts at the end, Jack’s shirt is on the inside. It’s like all those years that Jack had the shirts, he was hugging Ennis, and now that Jack is gone, Ennis is hugging him. LOVE it. And apparently (’cause I read the trivia section at imdb.com), switching the order of the shirts was Heath Ledger’s idea. Man, he was really good. I couldn’t always see Jack past Jake Gyllenhaal, but Heath Ledger completely disappeared.
