Review of Brokeback Mountain (2005) by Garyd. — 23 Jan 2006

My wife & I just saw this film and we both came away generally bored, unmoved, and feeling duped by all the hype. Beautiful scenery and cinematography, reasonable depiction of herding sheep on summer range, good cast, and fair acting (nothing special, as others seem to think).

BUT: The story is just not engaging. There's no chemistry between the lovers, no flirting nuances, no buildup. In fact, their initial lovemaking seems more like an impulsive act of rape. Like one of the other reviewers herein, I think I must have missed the "love" part (maybe I dozed off).

And much of the rest of the story is either implausible or uninteresting. Will they finally get together and live happily ever after? We simply don't care. One of the "great films of all time"? No way.

Even if you narrow the category to gay films, it's not even in the same league as "The Crying Game". I'm always perplexed when I'm in such disagreement with the reviewers, especially the "user comments" on this site, with which I normally agree.

So I analyzed the data a little more carefully. For the weekend of Jan. 13-15, BBM (in its 6th week) grossed $5.8M, which is in ninth place. Seems odd that, by now, word of mouth for this monumental film would be doing at least as well as "Memoirs of a Geisha" or "Fun With Dick & Jane".

I know, "there's no accounting for taste". I also looked at the Top 10 films of 2005 where, based on critics' reviews, BBM is #6. Excluding BBM, the average number of User Comments for the other top 9 films is 43.

BBM, on the other hand, has over 460 User Comments. Seems odd that a film that is generating so much positive feedback from users would not be doing better at the box office. Or could it be that the ballot box is getting stuffed by folks with an agenda, trying to generate interest and help its chances for an Oscar.

Just a thought.