Review of Brokeback Mountain (2005) by Tony B — 25 Jan 2015

Thought it was boring and cheesy at first but the story got more interesting and compelling as it went. The more interesting parts were with the main character's own families but my biggest criticism was Heath Ledger's performance, it was too forced, like he was doing a caricature of a 60 year old senior cowboy even though he and his character were only in their 20s, then they both looked pretty ridiculous as they aged in the film to almost 40, looked like SNL sketch characters to me for some scenes, it was only in the end of the film that I thought he performed adequately.

Jake Gyllenhaal was much more believable and consistent in his performance, the scenes with his family were the more interesting, but he still had some cheesy delivery of his lines during the twos argument and love scenes.

The love scenes I also criticize because though they were seen as intense and slightly awkward, which was purposeful, especially at the beginning of their relationship, but as the years went by this should have been more relaxed and natural.

In the end, it seemed this was like a high quality Lifetime TV movie rather than an Oscar winning film, and I'm especially surprised it won Best Score, I thought the music was repetitive, annoying, and cheesy also for the first half especially.