Mick, I read the novella and it didn't really strike me as much as the movie did and yes, I guess it took me less than 135 minutes to read it. But what does it means? To me, it adds more merits to the movie. In my opinion it purposedly has a slow pace, since there cannot be much action where the characters are stuck in a very frustrating situation ("a goddam bitch of a a unsatisfactory situation") where "nothing ended, nothing began, nothing resolved". I think the movie, as intimist as it is, nonetheless shows us a rather clear pattern. Two people meet. They are not supposed to fall in love. Despite all, they do. Desperately. They cannot live together, they cannot live apart. All they have is Brokeback Mountain, a place where they lived a short season of happiness and could be true to their own selves. But it's all they got. When one of them dies, the other cannot but cherish the memories of the only love of his life. This, at least, will be not taken away. The rest is just emptiness and solitude.

Not much action, you see. A lot of emotions, though. The more I think of it, the more my heart breaks.