I think the collection of stories the original comes from is one of best-written, most beautifully and sparsely put pieces I've ever read, and I mostly love all of Annie Proulx's works. So high expectations? You bet. Especially as all the reviews I'd read were very positive - Ang Lee's direction, the cinematography, Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar, fine cast of actors, and so on.
So was I disappointed? A bit, as could be expected. It is a rather beautifully shot film - in parts, and mostly the right parts. Brokeback Mountain itself, and the experiences the two boys share on it that we see in the first third of the film, is as peaceful and oddly idyllic as it needs to be, that haven for everything these two guys can't find in their day-to-day lives. They've captured this contrast well, as their lives are seen through glum boxy houses, peeling paint, faded marriages; but as we follow these little failures in both men's lives, it's so faithful and detailed and mundane that it really drags the pace of the movie to plodding, and the beauty of Proulx's quick-fire, to the point descriptions just slips away. With that, some of the emotional heart went too, for me. I was told of many people who left the theatre sobbing after the film, and I saw a few women wiping away tears as they left, but I wasn't touched, not like I was after reading the story.
It starts like this: Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are two young guys who meet one summer up on Brokeback Mountain, where it's just the two of them, some amazing scenery, and lots and lots of sheep. Ennis is reticent and withdrawn, raised by his siblings and having lost his family ranch in childhood. Jack is the more genial of the two; and he wants to be a rodeo star, wants his father to acknowledge him in some way. One night, while sharing a bedroll to get out of the cold, they start a physical intimacy that grows into something more, and makes something less of their lives away from each other for the next twenty years. They leave each other at the end of the summer with no promises and less words, but after four years - Ennis has married his childhood sweetheart Alma, Jack a rodeo queen with a rich succesful daddy - they meet up again and rush head along into the affair again, leaving everything else in their lives to crumble like ashes. They snatch weeks three to four times a year, ostenibly on fishing trips, but instead travelling and staying on lonely landscapes across America to be with each other without anyone else finding out about their business.
Jack strays, frequently - Jack comes to accept his nature, closested as he keeps his affairs - but Ennis fights it all the time, never wants any other man than Jack and even then, hating himself for it. Even while pushing his wife away with his bottled-up anger at himself and the world, distancing himself from his daughters, poisoning his relationships after his divorce because he can't be himself and he can't be what Jack wants to be. Heath Ledger is wonderful in this role - he swallows his lines with the reluctance to the outside world that is in everything Ennis does, then lets the frustration out in measured scarily intense release - anger, sorrow, the oddest moments of happiness.
A measure of a good experience is the way it stays in the mind, or in the heart. While the movie as a whole doesn't have the staying power of the story that it comes from, there are moments in it - a flashback of why Jack continues to want Ennis over the years and years of being rebuffed, that perfect embrace before a fire; Alma's sad eyes flashing with the things she's always wanted to accuse her ex-husband of but never could (Michelle Williams, also wonderful); all these moments with the spark of the story in them - that kept coming up in my mind later, something to chew on and think about and be affected by. And so I think the film understands the story, even with its faults in how they retell it for film, and when the telling is not so pedestrian the movie really is very good; just the whole is not as great as it could've been.
Friday, February 3, 2006
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Backstreet Boys - 30 Jan 2006 - Sydney Entertainment Centre
April and I slid into our seats about 10 minutes before BSB were on and the ent cent was already quite full and excited. The audience was older than expected at your average teeny-pop concert; my theory is, Backstreet Boys aren’t hot enough now for a great deal of teens, but they still hold a lot of memory for teens in the last ten years (ie. people around my age, in their 20s).
There wasn’t a huge build up before the actual start – it went dark, music started playing, some video montages flashed across the giant screens. Then, pretty much straight into The Call with its dramatic lightning, opening chords, and some pyrotechnics (it’s not a pop concert without fireworks), which suited the big stadium atmosphere. The concert itself wasn’t too flashy, it was mostly just the five guys wandering all over the stage, the band behind them, and the occasional effect – strobe lighting, lasers over the crowd, videos on the screen. Not overwhelming, added to the overall feel of the concert, didn’t detract from the guys and the music.
Each of the guys got at least one moment in the spotlight on their own. Howie pretty much only piped up for a welcome to Sydney (as with all big concert performers, they felt the need to make “Syyyyyyyyyydney Austraaaaaaaaalia” calls every now and then), and then he didn’t much make his presence felt for the rest of the night. I think he only got one solo of note. After More Than That, Brian did his bit, and I think he had the best audience banter going on – he was lovely, absolutely sweet and gorgeous and relaxed in his attitude and looks and voice, the whole night. I can definitely see why he’s a lot of people’s favourite BSB member now. He went back in time, calling out each album from Never Gone all the way to the eponymous album, and asked the audience each time to yell if they owned it (and after each yell, he’d go, “Oh, I’ve got that one too!”) Then when he got to the first album, he pointed to some girls and said, “You guys weren’t even born then!" He then got the audience to sing along to We Got It Going On from that first album, which was a partial success – everyone knew the chorus but faltered after that.
After that, he segued into asking everyone if they wanted to hear Nick play the guitar tonight. Obviously they did, and over the screams Nick walked out with an acoustic guitar, and after a very cute intro where Brian mentions that Nick just turned 26 and starts singing a little birthday ditty they start Climbing the Walls. But Shape of My Heart was when the audience really started to get into it as a whole. It was a great concert for the audience sing-a-long. In the video for I Want It That Way, I can clearly hear April asking, “Why is this song so popular?” because the audience participation went nuts. Siberia was terribly corny (“My heart spent time in Siberia…”) and they added to the unironic earnestness with fake snow, to my immense amusement. They then followed this up with All I Have to Give, complete with white suits and fedoras, and of course, the hat dance.
Actually, the dancing was all of the good. There wasn’t as much of it as could be expected – quite often you had the lead doing the solo and the other four doing some simple dance movies behind him - but for some songs there were full routines of co-ordinated dancing (such as for Larger Than Life). Also, there was some really cute moments from the guys. Nick wasn’t looking his best last night, and he was very incoherent in his audience speech/banter, but he was so cute rocking all over the stage - there’s many a video where he’s either twirling around, or air-guitaring, or collapsing onto his knees for no good reason but emoting.
They finished with two ballads with Kevin on a grand piano (Weird World, Incomplete) and the other guys circled around it on stools. After the shortest wait, they came back on for a planned encore of Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) which was the perfect song to finish on – energetic, defiant, fun.
Overall, I really really enjoyed this concert. I had this big grin on my face from start to finish; they were charming and cute and sang really nicely; in return, I sang tunelessly to everything I could; they played hit after hit and all my favourite ballads which was greatly nostalgic, then they made me like all the new songs too; and when it finished I wanted to listen to all the songs all over again (and I did, when I got home). You can’t ask for a much better concert experience than that.
Set List
The Call
Beautiful Woman
More Than That
Climbing the Walls
Shape of My Heart
(video - Don't Want You Back)
The One
I Still
I Want it That Way
Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely
Larger than Life
Siberia
(video - We Got It Going On)
All I Have to Give
As Long As You Love Me
I'll Never Break Your Heart
I Just Want You to Know
Crawling Back to You
Drowning
Quit Playing Games
(video - Never Gone)
Weird World
Incomplete
Everybody (Backstreet's Back)
There wasn’t a huge build up before the actual start – it went dark, music started playing, some video montages flashed across the giant screens. Then, pretty much straight into The Call with its dramatic lightning, opening chords, and some pyrotechnics (it’s not a pop concert without fireworks), which suited the big stadium atmosphere. The concert itself wasn’t too flashy, it was mostly just the five guys wandering all over the stage, the band behind them, and the occasional effect – strobe lighting, lasers over the crowd, videos on the screen. Not overwhelming, added to the overall feel of the concert, didn’t detract from the guys and the music.
Each of the guys got at least one moment in the spotlight on their own. Howie pretty much only piped up for a welcome to Sydney (as with all big concert performers, they felt the need to make “Syyyyyyyyyydney Austraaaaaaaaalia” calls every now and then), and then he didn’t much make his presence felt for the rest of the night. I think he only got one solo of note. After More Than That, Brian did his bit, and I think he had the best audience banter going on – he was lovely, absolutely sweet and gorgeous and relaxed in his attitude and looks and voice, the whole night. I can definitely see why he’s a lot of people’s favourite BSB member now. He went back in time, calling out each album from Never Gone all the way to the eponymous album, and asked the audience each time to yell if they owned it (and after each yell, he’d go, “Oh, I’ve got that one too!”) Then when he got to the first album, he pointed to some girls and said, “You guys weren’t even born then!" He then got the audience to sing along to We Got It Going On from that first album, which was a partial success – everyone knew the chorus but faltered after that.
After that, he segued into asking everyone if they wanted to hear Nick play the guitar tonight. Obviously they did, and over the screams Nick walked out with an acoustic guitar, and after a very cute intro where Brian mentions that Nick just turned 26 and starts singing a little birthday ditty they start Climbing the Walls. But Shape of My Heart was when the audience really started to get into it as a whole. It was a great concert for the audience sing-a-long. In the video for I Want It That Way, I can clearly hear April asking, “Why is this song so popular?” because the audience participation went nuts. Siberia was terribly corny (“My heart spent time in Siberia…”) and they added to the unironic earnestness with fake snow, to my immense amusement. They then followed this up with All I Have to Give, complete with white suits and fedoras, and of course, the hat dance.
Actually, the dancing was all of the good. There wasn’t as much of it as could be expected – quite often you had the lead doing the solo and the other four doing some simple dance movies behind him - but for some songs there were full routines of co-ordinated dancing (such as for Larger Than Life). Also, there was some really cute moments from the guys. Nick wasn’t looking his best last night, and he was very incoherent in his audience speech/banter, but he was so cute rocking all over the stage - there’s many a video where he’s either twirling around, or air-guitaring, or collapsing onto his knees for no good reason but emoting.
They finished with two ballads with Kevin on a grand piano (Weird World, Incomplete) and the other guys circled around it on stools. After the shortest wait, they came back on for a planned encore of Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) which was the perfect song to finish on – energetic, defiant, fun.
Overall, I really really enjoyed this concert. I had this big grin on my face from start to finish; they were charming and cute and sang really nicely; in return, I sang tunelessly to everything I could; they played hit after hit and all my favourite ballads which was greatly nostalgic, then they made me like all the new songs too; and when it finished I wanted to listen to all the songs all over again (and I did, when I got home). You can’t ask for a much better concert experience than that.
Set List
The Call
Beautiful Woman
More Than That
Climbing the Walls
Shape of My Heart
(video - Don't Want You Back)
The One
I Still
I Want it That Way
Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely
Larger than Life
Siberia
(video - We Got It Going On)
All I Have to Give
As Long As You Love Me
I'll Never Break Your Heart
I Just Want You to Know
Crawling Back to You
Drowning
Quit Playing Games
(video - Never Gone)
Weird World
Incomplete
Everybody (Backstreet's Back)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)