Brokeback Mountain

The closing night movie for the Starz Denver International Film Festival was the much anticpated Brokeback Mountain. It's a good movie but not really the movie it could be. It just didn't all come together. I felt it could have been more powerful especially at the end. All the credit in the world to Ang Lee and his production staff for doing such a good job with most of the cowboy elements. The parts with them showering or washing their clothes out in the wild with nothing more than their hats and boots on, so true. It's that incase you die at this moment in time you better do it with your hat and boots on mentality. There were a few things that they seemed to get wrong but no movie is perfect.

As for the performances. Jake Gyllenhaal was fantastic. His desire to live the life he truly wants running smack into the wall of how he had to live his life came through so great in every aspect of his performance. He is the one who deserves all the hype that is for some crazy reason going to Heath. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that Heath's performance was bad it's just that it wasn't that moving either. Yes he did a great job of playing the one desperately wanting to deny his feelings. The quite one who barely speaks and when he does he mumbles more than anything. There in lies part of the problem. In some of the more intimate moments you could not understand what he was saying. Luckily you knew the jist of the scene but I want to hear the dialogue and know what he is saying. There was just no emotional connection to him. If he ends up with nominations that's fine but there is just no way he should be winning anything.

As for the ladies. I don't like Michelle Williams and I will never understand why people insist she is such a good actress. Everything she does is so dull. Unfortunately she got the bigger role in this film and so she's getting all kinds of undue attention. Seriously what movie are people watching that she deserves any credit for her performance. Anne Hathaway didn't get enough work if you ask me so she really couldn't show a lot. The differences in the wifes was very intersting. Anne didn't really get to show what she might be capable of until the very end. See red area for details.


Spoilers ahead!


Okay I have read on more than one occassion that Heath plays the traditionally female role in this movie. The one who is pursued and all that. How the hell do you figure that? Jack (Jake) is the hopelessly romantic one. The one who will do anything for one moment with the man he loves. Come on Ennis (Heath) has this perfect little life but will sneak off to have a few nights with someone else and then return to his family like nothing ever happened. Jack however, wants to leave his wife and get a little place somewhere so him and Ennis can live happily ever after. Which one of those seems more the typical female character to you? Jack puts himself out there for these little rendevous hoping someday that Ennis will come around and run off with him. It's the he'll leave his wife for me someday scenario.

Unfortunately even though Ennis ends up divorced they never end up together. Jack is killed and sadly Ennis only finds out when he gets a post card returned. He calls Jack's wife, Lureen (Anne), and finds out what happened. This is when Anne gets her one big moment. She tells Ennis how Jack was killed in a mishap envolving a flat tire while we see a flashback of what really happened. He was beaten to death by three or four other guys. The lies people will tell themselves and the world are amazing at times. Lureen is the wife who knows somewhere deep down why her husband runs off to Wyoming a couple times a year. And what he may be doing with another man in town but chooses to ignore it and live the life she has created. That's where the lie about his death comes in. But while telling the lie to the man he husband ran off to see she has a quite breakdown. It is the most heart breaking moment in the whole movie to me.

I really didn't buy into the holiday scene with Ennis, Alma (Michelle), their kids and her new husband. While yes, they might invite him over for dinner and all that I really didn't buy into her finally having it out with him over what him and Jack really do up in the mountains. Plus her whole thing about putting a note in his tackle box to see if he was really fishing didn't seem real. Sure we all know what they were doing up there but considering the era in which the film took place they still would have been fishing so they had something to eat while up there. Plus it seemed like them having that fight would have been the last thing that happened before the divorce not that weird bedroom scene.

Jack's dad was true to form. Being so mean that he wouldn't let his son's last wishes be carried out. That was sadder to me than the fact that he died.



Had to pay more than double the price of a regular evening admission to see this screening. Getting to see it a head of the general public and the fact that Ang Lee was there made it worth that. But it is worth a full price admission.

The Matador

The second film I saw at the Starz Denver International Film Festival was The Matador. Overall I was disappointed with the film. I didn't care much for the directors style. He was also the writer and the writing was good as was the basic story. There were some things in the story I would have liked to have explained better. I thought it was rushed a bit towards the end. And while I normally don't mind Greg Kinnear (he's not way up my list of actors though either) I really did not care for him in this role at all. He was not the right compliment to Pierce Brosnan. Pierce however was great. This was such a different role for him. I loved seeing him play someone icky. It was a great role for him that will hopefully show people he is more than just the sauve guy in a suit.

The writer/director Richard Shepard was present and did an audience Q&A following the screening. Nice guy. It's also worth noting that Greg's character lived in Denver and he said he did that because his wife is from Denver and he loves the area. However, due to budget constraints he was not able to shoot in Denver. (I won't even go into my tirade about that right now. That is a seperate entry all together.) It was interesting to learn that he ended up making this film because Pierce and his production company requested a sample of his writing because they were considering hiring him to write another project. Then when pierce read the script for The Matador he wanted to make it. Also he's worked on a couple movies with the always wonderful Maura Tierney. He wrote and directed a movie with her and Adrian Brody called Oxygen and produced a movie with her called Scottland, PA. He is also working on another movie for her. Always worth keeping an eye on someone who will give that woman work.

I had to pay more than a usual full price ticket to see this movie and it was not worth that price. Truth is it is really only worth matinee price and the only reason it would be worth more is for Pierce.

Walk The Line

I know I am way behind. I saw Walk The Line the day it opened. It was a really good movie. Reese Witherspoon is hands down my front runner for all best actress awards. She was simply amazing. I think do to all the fun light hearted stuff she has done people are always a little tentative on giving her the credit she deserves and acknowledging her talent but she showed it all off here. Arguments can be made for her deserving more nominations (at the very least) for some of her past performances and now it is time for everyone to step up and give her the respect she deserves. And believe me with the also long overdue attention Claire Danes deserves it is some what painful for me to accept that she will have to wait to take home anymore statues. (Remember she has a Golden Globe for My So-Called Life.) Anyway Reese was dead on with everything in the movie. From the comedy to the drama she did not miss a beat.

And the same goes for Joaquin Phoenix. He has also given several terrific performances in the past and he is dead on perfect here. While I am a country music fan I have never really had a take on Johnny Cash but what I did know was that he would have to give the performance of his life and it would live and die by his singing. Needless to say he nailed it. Even my Grandmother says both Joaquin and Reese nailed it. When people who knew the entire span of June and Johnny's careers are saying this you know they did something right. And I saw Brokeback Mountain the same weekend and no way in hell does Heath Ledger deserve any awards over Joaquin. This is what it comes down to. If Jaime Foxx won last year and he lip-synced then there is no excuse for Joaquin not winning when he did the singing.

I'm not going into the spoiler area on this one because it has been so long since I saw it.

I ended up seeing it at a matinee but I would have been more than happy to pay full price for this movie and probably will pay full price when I see it again.