Happy Birthday!

To the luscious, succulent, wild volta_girl !!  I hope you have a wonderful day!

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN - semi-spoilery, mostly critique

I got to see this last night with a group of women I know, and I really enjoyed it.  Damn, I hadn’t realized just how pretty Jake Gyllenhall is – he’s got the freaking eyelashes of doom!! (Sorry Nathan Fillion, you've met your match.)  They are preternaturally long, I’m tellin’ ya.  And yeah, Heath Ledger is pretty too, and probably more my typical type, looks-wise.  The female characters were just the right amount of pretty for their parts, Alma being plainly pretty with no artifice, Lureen being prettily, but not overly made-up in her youth, and then aging in a typically southern way, trying to hold onto that youth by become ever more peroxided and made-up (I’m intrigued by Anne Hathaway now, having only ever seen her in fluff).  The daughters resembled each other and their parents enough to be believable.  Ennis’ 2^nd female partner looked the part of the beer-maid, but as she was an original character (meaning she was added to the story, not part of the written version), I couldn’t really figure out her more than initial attraction to Ennis. 

Of course the scenery was gorgeous, how could it not be?  But I didn’t think it was as much of a backdrop as it could have been.  Lots of the scenes were framed so closely that it didn’t really matter where the tent had been pitched.  The look and the feel of the entire film was authentic though.

( wherein goldy gets long-winded )

I’m truly truly grateful that my world isn’t so small and hard and cold.  But I also know that for many people, this is exactly the way of it.  It’s a damn shame that people have to inherit this kind of world, especially here in the 21^st century.  I know for a fact that this is still the case, and if you don’t believe me, ask DH what he was doing while I was at the movie.  He was watching American Idol, and one of the hopefuls was a cowboy from a ranching town, population 4.  His family was the entire population, and he was very nervous during his audition.  Do you know why?  It was the first time he’d ever been off the ranch.  Anyway, life is too short as it is.  Why do we put up with it being hard and unhappy too?  Or maybe, if it is so hard, it’s a relief that it’s short.  Either way, it’s a sad way to be, and I try to fight my way out of that box every day.  I’m also grateful that I can make that choice, that I know it IS a choice.  Ennis didn't have that.