Using a gift certificate from Best Buy, we picked up Brokeback Mountain. This movie got lots of attention around Oscar time and received plenty of publicity in political and media circles. So, we sat down with a friend to find out. Sadly, all three of us found that it had major plot holes and didn’t live up to the hype. The photography was beautiful, but the character development was shallow. Even the two main characters lacked much depth. Forget looking to their wives, children, and friends.

However, upon reflection, I wonder if the film serves more as a piece of poetry rather than a traditional story. A poem creates a state of mind, a feeling, evokes an emotion. It’s like a very short story, in that there’s so little time to develop a narrative, that a poem seeks to strike the heart, or the mind’s eye. Looking at Brokeback Mountain that way, I thought that it might have created a sense of the relationship. I also feel that for people with similar life situations, they’d start on a common page and would feel the movie.

I couldn’t recommend the movie in general, but, if it came on late at night, watch it. It’s worth that amount of time investment.