Heath Ledger (pictured, left) and Jake Gyllenhaal (pictured, right) play Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, two young cowboys paired up for a job tending sheep on a Wyoming mountain. As the days go by, their relationship grows until after a heavy night drinking whisky, they make passionate love. Initially denying the attraction each feels for the other, they go their separate ways at the end of the job. Both marry and have children but meet regularly to slake their undying passion for each other, living desperate, unfulfilled lives between each meeting until the untimely death of one leaves the other broken and devastated.
Ang Lee won the Oscar for best director, and the film was nominated for best motion picture, as were Ledger, Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams as Ennis' wife Alma who slowly realises her husband's secret. Anne Hathaway is equally stunning as Jack's wife Lureen. Although some critics summed the film up as a gay cowboy movie, it is much more than that, with the two men knowing they cannot be together but cannot keep away from each other. In the end, their sexual orientation is irrelevant - the film could be about any couple but what makes it so compelling is the intensity of both the script and the acting in one of cinema's most outstanding films.
Preview courtesy of Channel 4
Did you know? According to reports, Heath Ledger nearly broke co-star Jake Gyllenhaal's nose while filming a kissing scene.
(4 Star)
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