Ang Lee has become for me the eminent cinematic storyteller of tragic, forbidden love. I don't know if any onther liiving movie director has the mastery of this genre that Lee has. But more than the genre, he just has an incredible ability to understand and communicate the pathos of a story, that which makes it essential for the telling.

People who have lifestyles outside of what is conservatively accepted in society have always found ways to live their lives as they are, but not always openly. Such is the case with Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal), two cowboys who find themselves thrown together, herding sheep in Wyoming in 1963. They fall in love. Brokeback Mountain is a "Romeo Juliet" film for our time. At its base, it's a story of love and loss that is universally true. It's ever more watchable in our time because we are so painfully aware that the kind of fear that comes with being an outsider persists even today.

This story, as many other Ang Lee directed movies is so much more than the simple descriptions people have given it. Brokeback Mountain is not just the gay cowboy film, just as Sense and Sensibility cannot be described as merely an Austen period film or Crouching Tiger another Hong Kong martial arts film. What Brokeback is, is a very intimate and empathetic exploration of characters and the depth of their emotions. Each time Lee takes on a tragic love story, he allows the characters to be examined closely and with a tenderness of care that suggests that he truly understands the nature of their being. In this case, its the nature of love, loss, and fear.

I can't really say much more about Brokeback other than to say that it "gets" what love is about. It gets the potential pain of love, the weight of it. I came away from this movie satisfied by having my heart ripped out, not wanting to talk to anyone about what I just saw. In so many ways, this movie, with its quiet, lingering and ultimately profoundly moving story wanted me to just leave the theater quietly and alone. To be alone with the feelings of loneliness that accompanied these characters. There aren't too many movies that have had that effect on me.