Romeo and Juliet. "The Notebook"'s Noah and Allie. Prince Charming and Cinderella. Love themes have been prevalent in entertainment outlets for decades. Audiences are suckers for love, whether or not the relationships portrayed end happily. "Brokeback Mountain," one of the latest love stories to hit the big screen, delivers a poignant and heart-wrenching story of love, but definitely not one that stays close to the "love story" norm.

The film, based on a short story by Annie Proulx and brought to life by the incredibly talented Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), is set in Signal, Wyo., in the 1960s. It is the story of two cowboys, Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal, "Jarhead") and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger, "Lords of Dogtown"), who spend the summer herding sheep in and around the solitude of Brokeback Mountain. The duo's acquaintance progresses to a friendship, which in turn blossoms into love — a development upon which the film is centered. Brokeback Mountain provides a haven for Jack and Ennis, a place in which they can explore their relationship without social taboo. Love doesn't come easy for the two, though. It is this difficulty, this raw emotional battle between the couple, that adds to the film's ultimate poignancy. Featuring a powerhouse cast of young talent, the drama brought upon by the duo's affair is exemplified by the tragic struggle of both men torn between their feelings and society's decidedly unforgiving views of their situation.

The story becomes interesting when both men leave Brokeback and coincidentally lead parallel lives. Ennis marries Alma (Michelle Williams, "Dawson's Creek") and leads what looks like, at least from the outside, the perfect family life, complete with two energetic daughters. Jack marries the rodeo circuit firecracker Lureen (Anne Hathaway, "The Princess Diaries") and subsequently becomes part of a wealthy southern family, complete with constant undermining by Lureen's father. Despite "normal" lives, both men fail to shake memories of their summer in the mountains and reunite on Brokeback every year in a struggle to figure out how to manage their secret relationship. These scenes are the most affecting, with the grasping power of Jack and Ennis' love apparent in each line, each gesture. As Gyllenhaal's character laments, "That Brokeback got us good, don't it?"

Critics of the film have dismissed it as a "gay cowboy movie." To this, both director Ang Lee and actor Jake Gyllenhaal responded at a press junket attended by the Badger Herald. "I invite them [critics] to see the movie," Ang said. "I hope they would stop calling it a gay cowboy film and start calling it a love story." Added Gyllenhaal, "For those who say it's a gay cowboy movie, I saw it as the Ang Lee movie about two cowboys who fall in love."

Differences in the two men provide an added dimension to the movie's layers. Ennis is shown as fearful, guilty and suspicious, at one time placing the blame on his lover — "Because of you I'm like this." Jack, the shier of the two, is the one most invested in making the relationship work, urging Ennis to run away with him. Coincidentally, the word "twist" (Jack's last name) can in fact refer to the strength bull riders need to have in their thighs that allows them to hold on to a bull — a connection that can be made to the relentless hold Jack places on his own love story. Gyllenhaal stated, "My character is more aggressively, more knowingly gay … people say my character is the more feminine of the two." Going on, the actor explained that while the aforementioned character judgments may hold some weight, any character portrayed has various levels of complexity, possessing deeper levels below the surface. It is in the difference between the two men that the texture of the film is revealed.

The film, which took a total of eight years to complete, is timeless. Said Lee, "Fate sort of pushed the project forward … (it was) not (a) timely thing, not calculated." Gyllenhaal did say, though, that he thought Lee's choice to use younger actors was a smart one. "It'd be a different movie if older people had done it. Our generation has the growing ability to embrace and accept." The decided force behind "Brokeback Mountain" is apparent in the soul of the film. The movie has such heart, such spirit that audiences are not able to leave it unaffected in some way.

So, with its theme and subject matter, who's this film for? "I don't know," Lee said. "Everyone gets something different." Denying the idea that "Brokeback Mountain" is solely for a gay or straight audience, Gyllenhaal asserted that the film "… isn't really about trying to appease my male audience or female audience, my gay audience or straight audience. It's great to have the audience think the actors are straight playing gay. It's another degree in breaking down barriers."

One such barrier, the one getting the most response (not always positive) from critics, is the inclusion of no-holds-barred love scenes between the two cowboys. When speaking of filming the scenes, both Lee and Gyllenhaal said it came down to just doing it, so to speak. "On a set, there was a performance aspect to it. It was something very similar to a fight scene," revealed Gyllenhaal. "We're all human beings, we have lips …" Lee chimed in, "We were all shy, so it was just about turning on the film and doing it."

"Brokeback Mountain" is full of small nuances that make the film the bombshell that it is. Gyllanhaal asserted, "Within that ambiguity is where this movie is so beautiful." Facing Oscar buzz that is, according to the actor, "… inevitable when you work with someone like Ang Lee," the film is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to broaching relatively uncharted territory. "Brokeback Mountain" is a brilliantly done film of raw, thoughtful emotion and is a movie that is most definitely a must-see.

Grade: A!!!