Brokeback Mountain (2005)

In 1963, rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and ranch hand Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) are hired by rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) as sheep herders in Wyoming. One night on Brokeback Mountain, Jack makes a drunken pass at Ennis that is eventually reciprocated. Though Ennis marries his longtime sweetheart, Alma (Michelle Williams), and Jack marries a fellow rodeo rider (Anne Hathaway), the two men keep up their tortured and sporadic affair over the course of 20 years.

The feeling lingers. The images come back, not to haunt you but to reassure you. There is an element of hope within the melancholic sadness of this Ang Lee masterpiece. There hasn't been such a limpid definition of love since the world was still innocent. Limpid, yes, that's the word that comes to mind, remembering the shy lopsided smile of the extraordinary Heath Ledger. Who could possibly have predicted that Heath Ledger was such a giant, unquestionably destined to a legendary career. Well, Ang Lee I guess. Lee seems in total control of his canvas. Every frame is a moment, the silences are exquisite, the humans are as humans are and we're allowed to dive into their hearts without tricks without illusions. Raw, limpid, poetic and above all, true. I can't wait for the world to meet Jack and Ennis in this startling Ang Lee, Larry McMurtry universe.