Meaning.

I watched two movies this week, and both of them have really made me realize what kind of useless media I usually consume. I vow to set the bar a bit higher in the future.

First, I saw The Constant Gardener, with Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes. The movie tells the story of Justin (Fiennes), a rather passionless English diplomat living in Kenya, and his activist wife Tessa (Weisz). Unbeknownst to Justin, Tessa discovers a health-related scandal in Africa, and her detective work gets her killed. Justin begins a quest to retrace his wife's steps and discover the true story of her death. It was an interesting plot woven of world health issues, record profits for pharmaceutical companies, and international political intrigue.

First of all, the performance are wonderful. Weisz is luminous as Tessa. She is probably the true anchor of the film. Fiennes gives a nuanced performance as Justin, although I did find some plot-related motivations towards the end to be a little less than satisfying. Also, the environment of Africa is practically its own character in this film. Faces of Africa, landscapes, the hard truths of life there - it's arrestingly atmospheric.

Secondly, I finally got around to watching Brokeback Mountain. I know - I am probably one of the last people in American to see it. Shame on me, because I thought it was one of the most moving, life-changing movies I've ever seen. Unless you've been under a rock for the past year and a half, you know that Brokeback Mountain is the tale of two cowboys, Ennis and Jack, who ranch sheep together one summer in the 1960's. One cold night, the two men huddle together in a tent to keep warm, and an explosive physical relationship erupts. They both agree that the night was a "one-shot deal," but somehow the two men keep finding one another again, throughout the summer. After the ranching gig ends, both men nonchalantly tell each other goodbye, but the separation is painful for both. Cut to four years later - the men have gone their separate ways, married, had kids. But when they happen to see each other again, old feelings almost violently assert themselves, leading to a 20-year relationship that is by turns passionate, furtive, and tortured.

First of all, performances by Heath Ledger (Ennis) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack) are unbelievable. I cannot adequately describe the performance work in this film. Ledger, who I'd only seen in fairly superficial roles - teen movies, not-so-great romantic comedies - totally transforms himself for this role. Tight-lipped, sun-baked, and shamed, his Ennis provides the tension in the film that powers the plot through to its final, saddening conclusion. Gyllenhaal plays Jack, the more honest, self-accepting of the two men, with an emotion that is strong enough to be real but restrained enough to epitomize the tough guy image of a Western. Both lend a haunting quality to the various ways in which Ennis and Jack try to live their lives, denied of the one thing they truly want.

At the end of the day, Brokeback Mountain is a love story, the tale of two people who love each other but can't be together. This is not untrod territory in Hollywood. However, hanging this familiar storyline on a less-than-mainstream social topic for the movies - homosexuality - proves to be very powerful. The intensity of the two men's feelings for one another, and the delayed gratification that is the bedrock of their relationship, bring their experience into sharp focus for the viewer. Beautiful scenes of mountainous countryside and a strong, simple acoustic guitar accompaniment add to the poignancy. I just cannot recommend it highly enough. It will haunt you. It will make you think. It will move you.

Fair warning - there is one brief sex scene between the two primary characters. If you don't warm to that idea, I recommend getting the film on DVD and fast-forwarding through that part. It is not worth missing the movie over.

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