All Is Forgiven

Heath Ledger is officially forgiven for The Order.

I left work early today and went to the Century Centre Cinema to catch a showing of Brokeback Mountain.. I had become nearly giddy at the thought of seeing this film in the past couple of weeks given the nearly unanimous laudable reviews I'd read. How nice it was that a movie centered around a gay theme was being accepted and praised by the mainstream, and not just because it's about a gay theme or gay characters.

I won't go into the movie, because frankly I'm just not prepared to do so. When the movie ended, I initially thought, "Wow, was it really all that?" The thing is, I haven't stopped thinking about it yet. I'm still turning over events from the film in my mind, from characters' motivations to signs and knowing glances to what is required of the story to create and maintain dramatic tension. It has been a long time since a movie put me in such an emotionally vulnerable place -- Philadelphia comes to mind as the last film to do so.

If you haven't seen it, go. If it's not playing near you, drive or fly to the closest city with a theater that is showing it. If the fact that it's a "gay cowboy" movie is preventing you from going, then just get over it. This movie is as much about being gay as "Terms of Endearment" was about having cancer. (Think about it for a minute.)

On a lighter note, this movie did confirm something I've suspected for a long time -- Mr. Jake Gyllenhaal is fuzzy! And just when I thought he couldn't get any hotter . . .