ames Kendrick of QNetwork Entertainment Portal wrote:"Director Ang Lee (
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) draws deep from the currents already running through the Western, using Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto's exquisitely wrought vistas to suggest
transcendence in a world of repression and doubt. Against that backdrop, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall give the kind of performances that take a story from a conceit to something that truly gets into your heart. Gyllenhall is the more boyish of the two, full of optimism and therefore more overtly wounded when he runs up against the walls that hold him in. Ledger, in a truly stand-out role, appears at first to be stuck in a rut of coarse mumbling, but as the film progresses, we begin to see fine nuances in his downcast eyes and minimalist speech, ranging from a fierce sense of dignity to an ultimate level of tortured heartbreak."