CD Giveaway - Sam Shrieve, "Bittersweet Lullabies"
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The current student at Berklee College of Music has a rock 'n' roll pedigree, but delivers a pleasing and diverse collection of soft pop on his debut record. Enter our contest for your chance to win!
The Twilight Saga: New Moon Prize Pack
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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: December 9, 2005 Distributor: Focus Features Director: · Ang Lee Cast: · Heath Ledger · Jake Gyllenhaal · Michelle Williams · Anne Hathaway · Randy Quaid Related Sites: ·IMDb
Grade: B-
The heart wants what it wants. It’s irrational, unpragmatic, and at times, insufferable. If it’s left unsatisfied, it yearns with sentimental fondness for yesteryear. When it gets what it wants, wanderlust sets in. Love is an untamed beast whose detachment from logic, even the human psyche, forms the basis for Ang Lee’s new epic, “Brokeback Mountain.”
Set in rural Wyoming, the film spans twenty years (1963-1983) in the life of its main characters - the impulsive romantic Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and the quiet, yet willful protagonist Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger). Jack and Ennis are caught up in a whirlwind of a tortured love affair in an improbable time, and an even less accepting culture. A lackluster rodeo star, mediocre Jack marries the wealthy Lorraine and settles in Texas, all the while becoming more and more isolated from his family/marriage by his homosexuality. In contrast, Ennis keeps his homosexuality well closeted, all too aware of what happens to those men who live and love openly. Ennis’ poverty and his emotional isolation from his wife Alma (Michelle Williams) lead him to bouts of violence, brooding, and yearly jaunts to Brokeback Mountain with Jack, where the two, do little fishing, but lots of frolicking and shacking up under the moonlight. Escapism never looked so good; also bringing to light whether Ennis and Jack's love would have sustained the realistic limitations of daily life, outside of their unpopular sexual preferences. Idealizing a path not taken, is, if nothing else, universal.
While the film’s sex scenes seem a tad abrupt and rushed, Ang Lee is a master at depicting the emotional undertones of love and its subtleties. In this way, he is successful at showing the intimate psychological bond that forms between Jack and Ennis, outside of all its frisky homoerotic trappings. Less credulous however is Ledger’s Ennis. Despite his passionate kisses and his rare speaking proclamations of love for Gyllenhaal's Jack, Ledger wasn’t entirely convincing in his portrayal of a man in love with another man. I was disappointed too. Ledger has long been hailed for his performance in this film, and in my opinion, he fell short. His accent was flat and as Ennis, he lacked any sort of depth. If there is a standout in this film it is Gyllenhaal. He is the redemptive life force behind this film. The understated and pained performance of Michelle William’s Alma is also one worth noting.
In closing, I can’t tell if this film is gaining so much recognition and attention because of its actual substance or because of what it represents. While I commend its progressive intent, the film doesn’t explore much beyond the surface of these characters. Perhaps if it were an independent film it would have felt less forced, less like it was so trying so desperately to convey its message. Hollywood has a way of taking a potentially meaningful subject/plot and making it hokey. Unfortunately “Brokeback Mountain” falls victim to this anomaly. Go figure. However, the ultimate litmus test was my inability to cry during the 2+ hour duration of the film. I flinched a few times, felt anguish, remorse, but no actual moist drops fell. And in the end, I was left with Jack Twist’s prophetic words (regarding his love for Ennis), “This here is a goddamn b*tch of an unsatisfactory situation.” I couldn’t agree more, Jack. How very sad for the both of us.
