'Brokeback Mountain' keeps viewers thinking

Bet you didn't know that the American-Statesman uses a five-star system to rate movies. That's because our critics rarely — almost never — confer the highest rating, which is reserved for movies that will be viewed and discussed for years to come.

"Brokeback Mountain" is one of those movies.

Focus Features 'Brokeback Mountain' 5 out of 5 stars The verdict: One of the year's top movies Director: Ang Lee Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid Run time: 134 minutes Release date: Dec. 9, 2005 Rating: R for sexuality, nudity, language and some violence. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

A slow-moving, button-lipped Western romance, Ang Lee's wide-screen version of Annie Proulx's quick-moving, stub-tongued story worms its way into the viewer's consciousness, to remain there, a shifting, analog reality, for days or even weeks.

Windworn cowpuncher Ennis Del Mar and loose-limbed rodeo rider Jack Twist are hard-luck cases, forced to herd sheep (not even cattle) in the remote Wyoming mountains to make a little cash. Their forlorn brushes with nature are the recognizable stuff of Westerns — isolated men grappling with a dangerous, sublime world, Ennis a reticent man's man, Jack an emotional lightning rod. (John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in "Red River")

One freezing night — the first Wyoming snows come in August — Ennis and Jack fall into each other's arms. Throughout the summer stay on Brokeback, their tentative fumblings are more like playful wrestling, and their attraction is clearly more about complementary companionship than sex. Their subsequent and periodic relationship — prompted by curt postcards — confounds them for the next 20 years, as each marries and has children.

Jake Gyllenhaal, as Jack, lures the viewer into the love story. His smooth features are all eyes, almond-shaped, infinitely blue, surrounded by eyelashes so thick they could be registered as weapons. He takes the initial measure of Heath Ledger's Ennis, sparks the physical contact and remains open to a true coupling. And yet Gyllenhaal is not afraid to wear the black hat, aging gracelessly, whining about their bleak situation, edging into an off-screen break.

Ledger, on the other hand, gives a bona fide knock-your-socks-off performance. His deep reticence, eyes like chips of coal in a putty face, arouses little interest during the movie's opening scenes. But Ledger's gut responses to the couple's departures and reunions are like punches to the solar plexus. His final scenes will leave few eyes unwatered.

Screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana ensure that the dialogue rings right, and Ang's team nails not only the majestic backcountry, but the blank, boarded-up Western towns and the crummy, tossed-together interiors of the 1960s and '70s. One can almost smell the sour milk and diapers in the tiny apartment rented by Ennis and his wife Alma (emotional sieve Michelle Williams).

The media has fastened onto "Brokeback" as a "gay cowboy movie," and it will likely attract backlash from social conservatives. Some of this might be attributed to the movie's subtle social commentary. The fact that Jack and Ennis, under an ultra-violent Western code, could not seriously consider settling down bears on the current debate about gay marriage.

However, "Brokeback" goes beyond transitory opinion-making. Its relaxed storytelling, naturalistic language and just-out-of-reach characters draw the viewer into an inescapable romance. Due to the inscrutable logic of popular culture, it will appeal especially to women, surely one of the first Westerns to do so.

Is it a masterpiece, a "Casablanca" for its time? Perhaps not. Yet it's hard to question its status as one of the year's top movies. And it's certainly worth the kind of discussion a five-star review inevitably will provoke.