Milk

Milk is Sean Penn's film. In his role as the title character, Penn's performance is truly great; he is one of the few straight actors to "play gay" without going over the top or straying into stereotype. It is a careful and seamless performance that will be well-rewarded in the awards season.

That said, the film is not as great as Penn's performance. A typical biopic, it drags the audience around in Milk's life. Unfortunately, the presence of the writer's decisions is too present and the narrative decisions (both inclusions and exclusions) distract. There are also some points where the pace should be faster, particularly at the end when the film tries to build a dramatic tension for a finale that everyone expects. Perhaps the problem is that the writing in these parts seemed gratuitous and did not add to the events (as opposed to the King assassination in Talk to Me that was both heartbreaking and original even though this is one of the most storied events in recent history). Another problem was the writing of the supporting characters--both Diego Luna and Alison Pill suffer from parts that were terribly neglected and undeveloped. This is painfully obvious in the case of Luna's character who is hard to understand and perhaps should have been excluded if he wasn't going to be developed or understood. Furthermore, there is a curious dearth of drag queens in the Castro; although Milk's social circle did not include this population, the crowds should. I understand the desire not to cave to stereotypes, but the absence is unnerving.

Overall, totally worth seeing but not Van Sant's best.