Jake Gyllenhaal: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. Jack Twist - Brokeback Mountain

Oh, how audiences wish they knew how to quit Brokeback Mountain. And yet, nearly ten years later (and after winning three Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score) the film endures as one of the best and most heartbreaking romances in modern cinema. In a way Gyllenhaal's performance doesn't seem all that impressive - as if it would be hard to pretend you're falling in love with cowboy Heath Ledger - but boy, if he didn't deserve an Oscar of his own. Ang Lee's sensitive and involving film about two married farmers in the American West engaging in an ongoing, complex relationship over the course of two decades entirely hangs on the central performances. Both Ledger and Gyllenhaal manage one of the toughest asks for a dramatic actor: creating living, breathing, believable characters that can convince an audience of such a potentially melodramatic, histrionic premise. They do, with gusto, and don't worry, everybody watching's got something in their eye.