The protagonists are ranch hands, both of whom are quick to reject the idea that they are homosexual after their first encounter. And the audience may well wonder why these two initiate a relationship in the first place, especially as it is so contrary to what they themselves must consider acceptable. The film, if never quite giving an outright answer, explores the complexity of an alliance marked as much by the pain, as well as the emotional support, they give each other.

The story revolves around two scarred souls: Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) who share a sheepherding assignment on a mountain in Signal, Wyo., in 1963. Ennis is a man of few words; Jack is more open and inviting.

Their friendship manages to grow despite Ennis' taciturn manner. At first, it's only Jack who, against legal employment rules, has to spend the night up the mountain near the sheep (with Ennis down in the camp), but they come to realize it is more practical to keep watch in tandem.

Ennis resolutely insists he'll sleep outdoors, but the cold drives him into Jack's tent, where the latter precipitates a sexual act. In the morning, both are too embarrassed to talk about the incident. “You know, I ain’t queer,” asserts Ennis. “Me neither,” agrees Jack.

But some kind of bond has formed. The following night, a short scene in the tent seems to confirm their attraction to one another, physically as well as emotionally.

Later, some outdoor wrestling is observed by their boss, the unsympathetic rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid), who watches them with a knowing eye, as he will let Jack know later in the film.

At the end of the season, they come down from the mountain, and dismissing what transpired as a "one-shot deal," go their separate ways. Ennis is engaged to Alma (Michelle Williams, Ledger's real-life girlfriend), and they soon wed.

Jack, for his part, makes a tentative stab at the rodeo circuit and is shown talking up a cowboy in a bar, but eventually he meets former rodeo queen Lureen (Anne Hathaway) and they marry. Both men have children. One of Ennis's daughters (Kate Mara) will play a significant role at important junctures in his life.

Time goes by, and Jack sends a postcard to Ennis informing him he's coming to town, and suggesting they meet. When Jack finally drives up, the normally inexpressive Ennis rushes out to meet him. They embrace passionately, not knowing that Alma is sadly viewing them from behind the screen door. She says nothing, but understands all.

The men bolt, with Ennis telling Alma it will be a late night. The next day, Ennis announces that he and Jack are going fishing, and Alma is left behind in sorrow and confusion.

On the trip, Jack proposes that they chuck their families and buy a ranch, but for Ennis -- who as a child was made by his father to witness the aftermath of a hate-crime murder of two rancher neighbors who had lived together -- this is unthinkable.

Thereafter, Ennis and Jack meet several times a year for these “fishing” trips. (No explicit sexual activity is shown from this point on.) Lureen, like Alma, subconsciously senses the significance of these excursions, but retreats into her own business affairs.

Throughout, it is implied, when Ennis’s responsibilities keep him from seeing Jack, the latter searches for satisfaction elsewhere, adding an element of differentiation between the two men.

The Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality is unambiguous. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered" and the inclination itself is “objectively disordered.” At the same time, homosexually inclined persons “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” (#2357 and #2358).

As a result, Ennis and Jack’s physical relationship cannot be condoned. Of course, just as offensive from a Catholic perspective is the adulterous nature of their affair. And, in this regard, the film doesn't whitewash the pain Jack and Ennis cause their families, showing how selfish their trysts are, particularly when a befuddled Alma is left alone with the children. Both women are played with tremendous sympathy, but especially Alma.

What gives the film its power is the vividness with which it tells the story of an unresolved (albeit objectively immoral) relationship, which has a crushing impact on the two men and on all who are involved with them and which, it should be noted, ends in tragedy.

Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana's screenplay uses virtually every scrap of information in Proulx's (very short) short story, which won a National Magazine Award. They’ve expanded it while remaining true to the source.

Ang Lee directs with a sure sense of time and place and he doesn’t dwell on the carnal interaction between the two men. Except for the initial scene in the tent and brief sexual encounters between the men and their (fleetingly bare-breasted) wives, there's no sexually related nudity at all. Some outdoor shots of the men washing and skinny-dipping are side-view, long-shot or out-of-focus images.

The performances are superb. Australian Ledger may be the one to beat at Oscar time, and his Western accent sounds wonderfully authentic. Gyllenhaal is no less accomplished as the seemingly less nuanced Jack, while Williams and Hathaway (the latter, a far cry from "The Princess Diaries," giving her most mature work to date) are very fine.

Use of the film as an advocacy vehicle to promote a morally objectionable message that homosexuality is equivalent to and as acceptable as heterosexuality does a disservice to its genuine complexity. While the actions taken by Ennis and Jack cannot be endorsed, the universal themes of love and loss ring true. The film creates characters of flesh and blood - not just the protagonists, but the wives, girlfriends, parents, and children -- who give the film its artful substance.

However, the physicality of the men’s relationship and the film’s inherent sanctioning of their affair necessitate an O rating.

The film contains tacit approval of same-sex relationships, adultery, two short male sex scenes without nudity, two brief heterosexual encounters with upper female nudity, shadowy rear nudity, other implied sexual situations, profanity, rough and crude expressions, irreligious remarks, alcohol and brief drug use, fleeting violent images, a gruesome description of a murder, some fisticuffs and brief domestic violence. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.

The following movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.