Wrangler Jeans at the Rodeo

I'm not sure when it all began - perhaps it was Star Wars - when the whole product/film tie-in began. Who was that brilliant marketing executive who decided to create action figures and have them available at mcdonalds? It exploded in the 80's with ET merchandising, and Harry Potter has taken us to a new level.

With adult movies, or should I say grown-up movies, it's different - merchandisers hope viewers are "inspired" by the movies they see, and therefore offer up greatest hits cds (with the release of "Ray" or "Walk the Line") or martinis/swing music ("Swingers") or leather catsuits ("Avengers" remake) in the hopes that consumers will want to dwell a bit longer in the movie and purchase these items. (needless to say, those leather catsuits bombed, a la the film itself.)

These are the kind of things I think about when I see a movie like Brokeback Mountain. Ang Lee's painstaking attention to detail - down to those horrible plaid coats and Wrangler jeans and cigarettes, cigarettes, cigarettes - makes me wonder if we'll start to see anyone walking around trying to evoke Ennis or Jack. Somehow, I don't think so. It's just too damned depressing.

However, I did not find Brokeback Mountain to be the overly moving, wrenching, film-that-stays-with-you-for-days movie. I had braced myself after hearing such reviews from friends and co-workers, and I sat in the theater waiting for the big MOMENT to come where my gut would just be ripped open and I would start sobbing. It never came. Was I missing something? Was I not as sensitive as I thought I was - as a straight woman, could I not understand or have empathy for a story about a gay couple forced apart by time and place? Am I still too naive to feel the crush of the choices I have made in my life to feel like I have no way out? (I cried at King bloody Kong - doesn't that mean something?)

I didn't get upset because I found it cold. After the initial summer at Brokeback Mountain, and the first reuniting scene outside of Ennis' home, I did not find their relationship compelling nor could I warm to either character. That sounds harsh, but it could have been the effect of the efforts to convey time was passing, and I could not get over Anne Hathaway's terrible wigs. Ouch! I wanted to see more longing, and I didn't get it.

I found the movie beautiful, and Ang Lee's eye for framing each shot perfectly and his gorgeous manner of filming both Ennis (Heath) and Jack (Jake) was stunning - they were lovely. I have loved Heath since his role in "10 Things I Hate About You" - but have not seen him in much since. The way he held his mouth, the tenseness in every sinew of his body, was perfect. He had the potential to overshadow Jake, and he did for the most part, but Jake held his own, particularly in the scenes at home with his family.

Things that bugged? Well, that line that everyone keeps imitating (we only saw it in the trailers a zillion times) that is captured in the above picture. That damned twangy guitar love music that would get louder before a key scene. You knew one of them was going to smell the other's shirt or look at a postcard. It was just a bit much.

Before I end, let me just say that there was one scene that did make me well up just a bit - and that was the scene at the end, with Ennis and Jack's parents. The hollowness of their expression and their acknowledgement of their son and his life was moving.

I agree with Emily - a good movie, but not the best I saw in 2005. But it is a step in the right direction - perhaps someday a movie like BBM could be promoted as a "love story - two lovers separated by time and situation" instead of "that gay cowboy movie."