First of all, don’t feel like a right-wing creep if you get uncomfortable watching “Brokeback Mountain,” which will see its Little Rock pre-miere this Friday at Rave Colonel Glenn. It’s understandable.

The fact is, straight America has a lot of sexual baggage when it comes to the topic of gay love (and especially gay sex, of which there is some in “BBM,” though not as much as the Fox Newsers would have you believe). The good news, however, is that if you feel uneasy while watching “Brokeback,” then it has done its job.

More than just a beautifully made movie, this is a film that’s meant to foster discussion and self-reflection — especially for those who con-sider themselves OK with homosexuality. The first of its kind — a real, serious portrayal of a gay relationship — it’s also a sweeping and power-ful film, one that does Hollywood proud.

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, two 20-something cowboys hired on to watch sheep for a summer in the mountains of Wyoming in 1963. It’s lonely up on the mountain, and before long they’re having sex, maybe even falling in love. Their paths diverge, but not their bond. Both marry and have kids. Ledger stays in Wyoming and lives the life of a flat-broke cowboy and ranch hand, while Gyllenhaal heads south to Texas and makes good selling farm equipment in his father-in-law’s business. Once or twice a year, however, they get together for “fishing trips,” which are actually a cover for their trysts. Jack wants more, Ennis can’t give it — a divide which eventually leads to lies, deceit and death.

While Gyllenhaal has always been a bit nasal and whiny for my taste, Ledger is absolutely brilliant here as a guy so backwoods he never even really realizes that he’s gay. It’s him that your heart breaks for. Time and again Jack shows he’s kinda only in it for the adventure and the sex (which is a feeling that keeps me away from the “sweeping love story” tag that so many critics are batting around about “Brokeback”). In the end, however, it’s poor old Ennis who ends up with a millstone of regret around his neck.

Overall, while I thought the film was well scripted, well acted, and beautiful to look at, the major flaw was the initial sex act between Gyllenhaal and Ledger. That moment is kind of the foundation of their whole relationship — especially being that neither had seemingly ex-pressed any sexual interest in each other up until that point.

In the film, it just happens. Boom! No talking, no hemming and hawing, no beating around the bush. One guy throws his arm over the other while sleeping, and the next thing you know, it’s on.

Now I know somebody out there is thinking of the 1 million movies in which a man and a woman lock eyes for the first time and then hop after it like jackrabbits. But remember: This is supposed to be two cowboy he-men in 1963 Wyoming. And, like it or not, in 1963 Wyoming, trying to nail your tentmate every time he flashed what you might interpret as a come-hither glance would probably have been a good way to end up in a shallow grave.

Because I never bought the validity of that initial act, there was a little nagging doubt in my belly about the rest of their relationship — enough to keep me from labeling this a masterpiece.

Still, even at that, this is one of the year’s best movies. Maybe even THE best. Come Oscar night, look for “Brokeback Mountain” to take best picture, with Ledger a strong contender for best actor as well. Even beyond all the awards, however, is the fact that it’s just a great film, one that makes you understand why some poor fools spend their lives trying to become actors. Even beyond the provocative and groundbreaking pair at its center, it’s a film that will surely keep people talking long after it has ridden off into the sunset.

— By David Koon



Out there

“Breakfast on Pluto” is as apt a title for this movie as any, as this quirky film, directed and written by Neil Jordan, is definitely out there.

Jordan’s been out there before, on the cutting edge with such memorable films as “The Crying Game,” “Interview With the Vampire” and “In Dreams.” Here, he cast the versatile, talented, somewhat pretty-boy (some may say somewhat strange looking) Cillian Murphy — the vil-lain in both “Batman Begins” and “Red Eye” — as a Dublin male, Patrick Braden, who has enjoyed dressing and acting female since his childhood. Murphy’s character was left as a baby on the doorstop of a priest (Liam Neeson), raised by a strict foster mother, and as a teen in a boys school imagines how he was conceived and who his mother was — while enjoying going by the name “Kitten.” He seems early on to have suspected the priest is his father, and it’s no surprise when we learn that’s the case. He’s told his mother resembled Mitzi Gaynor; she deposited the baby and high-tailed it to London.

Patrick wants to learn where his mother is, but the priest won’t reveal it, and Patrick slowly makes his way to London, in drag, on a search for mom. In that quest, he’ll find his father as well as find who he is, but before he does he finds himself singing in a rock band, assisting a magician, then stripping behind glass or working streetcorners with hookers (“I don’t do any heavy stuff,” he tells one john, and in fact never in the movie does “Kitten” kiss another man).

All this plot is wound around the birth of the IRA/Northern Ireland/England struggle in the 1970s, complete with period music and assorted violent acts that touch the major players. Each little segment of the film is told like the chapter of a book (it’s based on Patrick McCabe’s novel), and it seems like it could have ended about six chapters earlier. There are also birds whose conversations are subtitled. Hey, it’s Neil Jordan.

Jordan, who shocked viewers in “The Crying Game” by revealing his transvestite late in the film, is upfront earlier with Murphy’s status, but with gay cowboys and the like in movies today, there’s not nearly the shock effect, and you buy into Murphy’s role from the beginning. In fact, Murphy is a fantastic actor (this performance earned a Golden Globe nomination).

“Breakfast on Pluto” is playing at Market Street Cinema.

— By Jim Harris



A wink and a nod

Our experience with animation is such that anything better than the old Loony Tunes we grew up with seems pretty amazing. Pixar set the stan-dard, and “Finding Nemo” has been our all-time favorite. Of the most recent computer-generated animation, we’d put “Nemo” on the high end and “Madagascar” maybe on the low side.

“Hoodwinked” is a good animated film that ingeniously takes the “Little Red Riding Hood” story several steps beyond, like a crime drama to be solved. We find our four players — the wolf, Red, Granny and the lumberjack in handcuffs — and being questioned by the local police (a bear and the three little pigs). Who was really the bad guy at work here? Was the wolf trying to eat Red? Was Red trying to incriminate the wolf? Was Granny Puckett, the best sweets maker in the woods, stealing all the recipes of the forest critters to dominate the market? Was the woodsman a crazy loon bursting into Granny’s home and bringing his axe to bear on the other three?

The animation reminded us of some of the new techniques combined with the old claymation style of animation (think: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” with the Burl Ives snowman) for a 3-D effect. One of the more impressive scenes is a runaway rail car careening through the mountains.

The strength of “Hoodwinked,” though, is the funny script that makes the 90 minutes as enjoyable for the adults as the kids. Our near-4-year-old said the film was good, if that’s any help. The target audience is probably a little older, but with some smart comedic writing and even with its teen-aged targeted music, it will be a fine time for the whole family.

“Hoodwinked” opens Friday.

— By Jim Harris