Bias may undo A- performance in ‘Brokeback’

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In theaters

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, directed by Ang Lee, written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, 134 minutes, rated R. Starts tonight, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

The new Ang Lee movie, “Brokeback Mountain,” begins in a picturesque nowhere of tall mountains and big skies, where cowboys and cattle roam, the air is clean, and the only stone wall here is the real thing, with nothing political muddying the mortar.

It’s 1963, it’s Wyoming, and what’s even bigger than the sky is what is about to build between the two young men standing beneath it, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal). When these two meet while seeking work tending sheep in the vast reaches of Brokeback Mountain, where they will live and work over the course of a defining summer, they are unprepared for what is about to hit them.

That would be love.

As written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from E. Annie Proulx’s short story, this beautifully measured film, with its mounting passion, halting emotions, societal pressures, and devastating personal demons and frustrations that eat away at the fringes until they consume the center, is as much a love story as it is a tragedy.

Over the course of more than two decades, Lee follows their relationship, which takes a dramatic shift one drunken night when a shivering Ennis, who has slept under the cover of stars while Jack sleeps in a tent, joins Jack in an effort to seek shelter from the cold. It’s a move that proves a pivotal turning point in their relationship, with the sex that follows so shocking to them – and so rough – it borders on the violent.

Next day, after a silence that stretches long into awkwardness, Ennis reveals what will prove a longer internal struggle. “I ain’t no queer,” he says. “Me neither,” Jack responds.

Regardless of what they are, there’s no denying what they feel, which is more complex and meaningful than any label they could attach to themselves, or the world could pin on them. What matters in “Brokeback” is that nothing will change who they are – not Alma (Michelle Williams), the woman Ennis marries and sodomizes who bears his two daughters, and not Lureen (Anne Hathaway), the wealthy Texas woman Jack marries who bears his son.

Through the years, their lives intertwine, with occasional fishing trips planned in which no fish are caught. Eventually, Jack urges that they scrap their marriages, move in together, start a business. But Ennis, a man of the fewest words whose troubles run deep because of the brutal murders of two gay men he saw in his youth, can’t allow himself to be himself. The times won’t allow for it, either. And so he and Jack exist in a limbo of lies and denial, their once fresh faces weighted from age, yes, but also from the knowledge that they can never be.

With its strong performances from Gyllenhaal and Williams, and its excellent performance from Ledger, whose inward turmoil gets to the film’s universal themes of oppression, longing and shame, “Brokeback Mountain” will do well in the pending awards season, which is fine, but the greater issue at hand is that the movie nevertheless faces the same fate Ennis and Jack faced 40 years ago.

Bigots and homophobes will vilify it, some will fear it, others will dismiss it because of its subject. It’s that unfortunate truth that suggests that some mountains, Brokeback or otherwise, remain just as insurmountable today as they always have. And that fact is Lee’s coup de grace.

Grade: A-

On video and DVD

UNDISCOVERED, directed by Meiert Avis, written by John Galt, 97 minutes, rated PG-13.

The title of this airy, riffy drama from first-time feature director Meiert Avis gets to the film’s non-performance at the box office. Avis pushes “Undiscovered” into the high-strung subcategory of model-musician love – always dangerous, treacherous territory – where characters of no substance demand to be taken seriously or else.

Or else what, you ask? Or else they’ll have a bad hair day seems to be the answer.

Problem is, you can’t take any of this seriously – the film exists in the ether, where the air is thin and the actors can’t breathe.

The movie stars Pell James as Brier, a delicate model-cum-actress who meets-cute on a New York subway with smoky singer-songwriter Luke Falcon (Steven Strait). It’s a brief connection that involves the romantic, spontaneous tossing of a glove, with their meeting hitting Luke hard in the heart. If he had the chance, he sure could drink a whole lot of Brier.

Too bad for Luke that he’s off to Los Angeles to find himself and his music. Good news for Luke, then, that Brier has something of a religious calling. She decides she’d rather like to act, which her manager (Carrie Fisher, tragic) rightfully is apprehensive about encouraging. Still, it’s off to L.A. for Brier – and you’ll never guess what happens next. She eventually meets up with Luke, with their tumultuous love affair hanging in the balance more often than not.

Tossed into this mix are skateboarding dogs, plenty of music video montages, and Ashlee Simpson as Brier’s friend, Clea, an aspiring actress who likes to sing her heart out, so much so that some might long for a hook to tear her away from the mic. To be fair to Simpson, she’s not as bad as the rest of the cast, but that’s faint praise considering the talent involved. Still, unlike her older sister, Jessica, she won’t ever be the Simpson who spent part of the summer of 2005 squeezed into a padded pair of Daisy Dukes.

Grade: D-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Batman Begins – A

Bride & Prejudice – B

The Brothers Grimm – D-

The Cave – C-

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – A-

Cinderella Man – A

Cypher – C+

The Devil’s Rejects – B

Dukes of Hazzard – D

Empire Falls – C-

The Exorcism of Emily Rose – C+

The 40-Year-Old Virgin – A

Guess Who – C+

Happy Endings – C+

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – B-

The Interpreter – B+

Into the Blue – C-

The Island – C+

Kicking and Screaming – C

Kingdom of Heaven – B-

Kung Fu Hustle – A

March of the Penguins – A

Melinda and Melinda – B

Millions – A-

Monster-in-Law – B-

Mr. & Mrs. Smith – B

Must Love Dogs – C+

Polar Express – C-

Red Eye – B+

Robots – C-

Sahara – C-

SeaQuest DSV: Season One – B

Serenity – A-

The Shield: Complete Fourth Season – A-

The Skeleton Key – B

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – B+

Transporter 2 – B-

Undiscovered – D-

Upside of Anger – B

Valiant – C-

War of the Worlds – B+

The Wedding Crashers: Uncorked – B-

The Wedding Date – B