By Timothy Chow

 That's what I hate about the holiday season: all this free time to do whatever I want, and the impending Oscar season, and my absurd desire to have seen most of the critically acclaimed movies of the year. So then I go out every day, eat a meal or two with friends, catch a flick, do a little shopping, spend more money, watch more celluloid, repeat for 2 or 3 weeks. Then, I feel this yearning to write about my days and that lends itself to lengthy movie reviews. I'm doing my best to cut them down in size just because they're so absurdly long and sometimes such a snooze to read, but it's a problem with me, I write too much (my old boss told me that).

Anyway, Brokeback Mountain. Right, so I'm not going to bother making the bareback mountain jokes, but the movie's not as gay as I thought it would be really. There's been a lot of buzz for Jake and Heath's willingness to go ahead with such controversial roles, and I guess there should be praise for that, but there's something amiss in the mood and atmosphere. For most of the film, I felt really detached from the entire experience. This was surprising since I figured I'd probably be even more into it since I'm all for the hot gay scenes, but some of it just didn't really connect.

The movie starts off in rural Wyoming where Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) meet each other at a job to tend flocks of sheep. They go up to Brokeback Mountain and through the lonely summer months, they slowly fall in love with each other which...inevitably bodes unfortunate for them since the summer ends, the job finishes and they all go back to where they first came from. The remainder of the story tells about the years following that chance summer, and Ennis and Jack have both gotten married, and now have kids. One day, Jack (the more emotionally open one) manages to find Ennis and sends him a postcard, indicating that he'd like to come up and visit. Thrilled, Ennis looks forward to seeing him again, and one can't help but feel overjoyed for the guy when he finally sees him.

I can't talk about it any further without spoiling it, but suffice to say, it's a work about the pressures that society puts on individuals and how that destroys lives and relationships. Poignantly tear-jerking in most of its last 15 minutes, there are some standout scenes there that rank high even among the rest of the movies this year. Unfortunately, the build up to then is agonizingly slow - Heath's hideous western accent that turns into a mumble of sounds when he speaks quietly or excitedly (worse when it's both); the sparse soundtrack which I can't believe is Golden Globe-nominated; the disappointing wide-angle shots of the countryside; the painfully slow pacing of the film; the dearth of dialogue.

All four main actors are pretty good in their roles, but they're not particularly stand outs. I wish I could like the movie more, and for the last 15 minutes I really did, but the 2 hours beforehand just made it too hard.

3 ½ stars out of 5