As a married, middle-aged heterosexual women, I find the reunion kiss TOO much! Someone posted here somewhere about how women now understand why men like seeing two hot women kiss! Zowie!
And the actors do justice to Proulx's prose. She wrote how the physcial, almost brute force in which they come together. Thighs, groins pressing together, stepping on each other's toes. In the movie, the sound of their boots on the stairwell along with the roughness and heavy breathing of their kiss, the pushing and pulling so perfectly illuminates what Proulx wrote. Perfect.
She also likened Jack to a spooked horse as he stands next to Ennis making idle chat with Alma. After I read that, I watched closely how Gyllenhaal portrayed this. While Jack is trying to keep it together, he talks and his eyes shift from Ennis' eyes to his mouth to his eyes to his mouth. It's like he's hungry. He finally lowers his head as if to hide the obvious and hold himself back.
I love the whole reunion scene from the mighty embrace to the physicalness of the kiss to the tension while upstairs. Especially given that Ennis is the initiator and how they parted 4 years earlier. Watching Jack's surprise turn to submission to assertion to dizziness as Ennis gives the gentle head nudge. It's exhilorating.
