Brokeback -- slow, sad ... and I LOVED IT. Damn you, Ang Lee!

I bet that my beloved Other Half and I had a unique moviegoing experience yesterday. And I use the word "unique" advisedly, like any former copy editor/rookie writer who has had her ass chewed by obsessives who love to point it out when something is not truly unique (i.e. truly one of a kind) and merely unusual or remarkable or somesuch.

We saw an Anne "Princess Diaries" Hathaway doubleheader: "Hoodwinked" with the boys, and "Brokeback Mountain" without them. Of course, Anne is hardly the story with either of these movies, though she's just fine in both. In "Hoodwinked," the story is really the indie spirit of the film itself. It's good fun, not Shrekian in scope, but delightful nonetheless. It's the Little Red Riding Hood tale with kind of a cop show spin. Here's where the "real" critics compare it to "Rashomon," with its multiple perspectives. But I'm not a "real" critic, so I'll compare it to "Boomtown." But really funny.

"Brokeback Mountain" is not funny. It's like falling into another world, the world of these two men for whom love cannot conquer all. I usually hate this kind of movie, this kind of musing. But this really worked for me. As much as anything, I fell in love with the visuals, with the absence of words. Yeah, it's a big, gay movie. Whatever. I just loved that it was a powerful story of love and yearning, and, dammit, loss. It made me thankful to be living when I'm living, though things still aren't where they need to be for gay people. But at least I don't have to turn away from the love of my life out of fear. I have just enough fear to keep me from, say, holding hands with her in public situations. But it's not so much fear of being beaten to death (though I know that still happens). It's more a fear of being yelled at or shunned or something. Of course, thanks the to the civil rights legislation approved last week in Washington state after nearly 30 years of trying, we have some degree of recourse. Yes, the world is a better place.