Believe the hype about Heath Ledger. His performance in “Brokeback” is one of the best of the year. If you’ve seen him in “A Knight’s Tale” or “10 Things I Hate About You,” you will not recognize him in this film. He makes mumbling and looking at the ground into an art form, but also packs plenty of pent-up emotion into many scenes while convincingly aging 20 years.  In fairness, Jake Gyllenhaal is no slouch here, but he’s doing what he’s already done, remarkably well, in several other films.

The story is simple: in 1963 two young cowboys are hired to spend the summer tending a heard of sheep on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) is a rancher of few words, Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal), is an aspiring rodeo rider. While left alone in the wilderness, they discover a mutual attraction and begin a clandestine affair,  meeting over the years for the occasional fishing trip up around the titular mountain.

Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams) early on, changes jobs often, and struggles to provide for his family. Alma is a classic homemaker trying to please her man. Her slow realization about the truth of Ennis’ fishing trips personifies the mostly unspoken tension of the story. Alma Jr., played by several actresses as she ages, is Daddy’s favorite, and it is her 19-year-old self (Kate Mara) who shares the film’s final scene with Ennis.

Jack, meanwhile, moves to Texas where he marries Lurene (Anne Hathaway), a fellow rodeo rider and the daughter of a wealthy farm equipment salesman. Roped into the family business, his heart yearns constantly for a more fulfilling life, particularly one in which he shares a ranch with Ennis. Unlike Ennis, Jack tries to satisfy his sexual and emotional needs with male prostitutes. Ennis, however, regularly warns Jack that they cannot go public because they could be killed by the macho cowboy folk who fear and hate gays.

Director Ang Lee avoids histrionics for most of the film (unlike in his “Hulk”), relying heavily on the unspoken. Gen Y kids may not yet understand it, but homosexuality was never spoken of directly in the American culture of this era. The film’s strongest theme is isolation. Some of the men’s embraces seem a little hokey until you realize how long they’re forced to go between them. Any suspicion of the true nature of the relationship is met with scorn, disgust, and fear, but nobody talks about it. These men literally have to go out to the middle of nowhere to act on their love for each other.

Oscar Watch:  This movie will contend for Best Picture, director, cinematography (because of all the landscapes), and screenplay (by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana). Heath Ledger will be a frontrunner for Best Actor. Unfortunately, Jake Gyllenhaal will be an odd man out. Michelle Williams may get a nod as supporting actress.

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