DECEMBER 16. 2005
JUStjOUt 39
film
play by Larry McMurtry' (Lonesome Dove) and
Yahoo!
empathetic, melancholy tone. But some of the
Cowpoke love story lives up to the hype
neous, particularly a bland pseudo-romance
Diana Ossana is a gem that captures Proulx’s
scenes and subplots they have added seem extra
between Ennis and a woman played by PR's Linda
Brokeback Mountain
And it’s a tearjerker of the highest order. The end
Giddyap, guys and gals!
ing leaves a lump in your throat that lasts for hours
Brokeback Mountain —quite possibly the most
after the final credits roll.
Cardellini.
Director Ang Lee is perfectly suited to the
material, having already dealt with Brokeback
eagerly anticipated gay film ever—has finally galloped
The action opens in Wyoming in 1963. In an emo
Mountain's central themes in his previous films.
into town. It has already lassoed Best Picture honors
tionally restrained, gut-wrenching performance that
He’s an old hat at gay themes (The Wedding
from the Venice Film Festival, the New York Film
will give Capote's Philip Seymour Hoffman a run for
Banquet),
and
and a beautiful biracial girl, forming a kind of loose
Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics
his money come Oscar night, Heath Ledger stars as
Sensibility) and torturedemotions (The Ice Storm).
knit but loving family. And Kitten needs one: He has no
Association.
Ennis Del Mar.
So pony on up to the ticket booth. But be prepared
idea who his parents are, a problem that eventually
The hype, for once, is all true. Beautiful, haunting
Along with Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), Ennis
and impeccably acted, this cowboy love story instant
spends the summer herding sheep on idyllic
ly joins a distinguished rosier of American queer clas
Brokeback Mountain. Story swapping leads to rough
sics that includes Gus Van Sant’s My Ou n Private
housing and, eventually, a passionate and hasty'
Idaho, Todd Haynes' Par from Heaven and Kimberly
exchange of fluids.
Peirce’s Boys Don t Cry.
restrained
romances
(Sense
Cillian Murphy struts his stuff in Breakfast on Pluto.
for a heartbreaker.
pushes him out of small-town Irish life and on to
—Stephen Blair
London. Once there, his dramatic personality—a mix
of fearlessness and coquettish masochism—gets full
Breakfast on Pluto
play. He meets a lonely magician (Jordan regular
Neil Jordan, like anyone with taste, loves his tran
Stephen Rea) and becomes his assistant and quasi
Ennis and Jack part at the end of the summer. Each
nies. The director who mythologized gender-bender
girlfriend. He becomes a prostitute, then is nailed—
gets married and has kids. They dupe their
Jaye Davidson in The Crying Came (and made Tom
and tortured—as a suspected Irish Republican Army
wives by going on occasional “fishing” trips
Cruise look like a drag queen in Interview with the
killer when a disco he's at is bombed. In the back
together, but Ennis refuses Jack's proposal
Vampire) introduces another major tranny diva in
ground is Father Bernard (Liam Neeson), a sympa
that they ditch traditional family life and set
Breakfast on Pluto, a wonderfully complex ode to
thetic friend who hears his confessions and even fol
tle down together.
being different and a sure cure for the winter blues.
lows Kitten to London to help him find himself.
Ledger and Gyllenhaal are both pinup
Set in 1970s Ireland and England, Breakfast stars
Opening Dec. 23, Breakfast delicately balances
boys. But their acting is so natural and
Gillian Murphy as Patrick Braden, who redubs himself
whimsy (two bitchy “birds" appear throughout to offer
evocative that we cease to think of them as
"Kitten” and terrorizes family, school and neighbor
commentary on what’s happening) and heartbreak. All
hotties soon after the film begins. However
hood with his unrepentant drag ways. (The opening
this is held together by Murphy’s brilliant incarnation
long their careers may last, this will be a
scene shows him strutting down a street in haute cou
of Kitten, a masterpiece of nuanced emotion. It’s hard
defining moment for both of them.
ture being propositioned and then insulted by con
to imagine even a real queen pulling this off; the fact
with
that the actor is straight in real life makes it practical
Brokeback Mountain started off as a
Brokeback Mountain will be a career-defining moment
for pinup boys Jake Gyllenhaal (left) and Heath Ledger.
fused
construction
workers.)
Obsessed
New Yorker short story by Pulitzer Prize
Hollywood glamour, he manages to hook up with a few
winner Annie Proulx. The adapted screen
other outsiders, including a kid with Down syndrome
ly a miracle.
—Gary Morris ©
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