Milk (R)

While history is in the forefront of this well-directed bio-pic, humanity is mostly on stage. Harvey Milk, the gay icon and San Francisco politician, comes to life in full emotional form as portrayed by Sean Penn in an Oscar-buzz-generating performance. So stunning and nuanced is the acting and character development, those Penn naysayers, weary of his global nattering and left-leaning politics, are forced to suspend their angst and bore straight into the heart and intentions of Milk, who was murdered even as he advanced a culture on his own terms. You forget it's Penn and become enormously engrossed in this advanced character study, which is a drama-school textbook on acting and all its subtleties. The critics, naturally, are nearly gaga, and heap praise not only on the cast, but also on director Gus Van Sant, who perhaps was the right choice to stamp this meant-to-be told -- and oddly timely -- story of human rights and one man's quest for dignity. A must see.

Dallas Morning News: Good. "In a film full of great performances – Josh Brolin, sporting a Glen Campbell haircut, is superb as the crazy question mark of a man who kills Harvey – this is Sean Penn's show. His Harvey Milk is an amazing creation: the body language, the speech pattern, the lilt and tenor of his voice. He uses every aspect of his being to convey his character. Hollywood and the movies are full of people we call actors, but watching Mr. Penn makes you realize how few of them deserve that title. In one quietly stunning moment, we see Mr. Penn lying in bed; the room is dark save for a band of dim light cutting across his face. As sadness permeates the scene, we watch his face soften and his eyes fill with tears. It's a reminder, in this age of virtual flash and computer-generated wonders, of the power of simple human expression."

Denver Post: Very Good. "At the heart of this eloquent portrait of a cultural catalyst is Penn's profoundly human, and possibly finest, performance. He captures Milk's animated physical presence. His eyes sparkle. He is goofy, funny, likely to burst into a smile. But when he crosses his arms, he seems self-protective. Penn gives his character a complicated humility. In a late scene between Milk and Moscone (Victor Garber), he even gives off a whiff of hubris."

Boston Globe: Very Good. ""Milk" is also as immersed in civic process as it is in sexual congress. How ironic that a filmmaker who so often breaks the established rules of storytelling and invents his own would make a movie so riveted by the passing of laws. Some of these sequences feel like moments from the great Frederick Wiseman's social documentaries... Van Sant, who is openly gay, rarely uses movies for direct politics. Until now, the homosexuality in his movies was more sudden, random, and homoerotic - kisses here, glances there. "Milk" changes that. It's the rare major film dealing with homosexuality that doesn't orbit around the closet. The men are mostly, proudly out. And Van Sant himself doesn't hold much back - even the appearance of a Judy Garland song chills the soul. Playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" requires a certain gumption. But the song has never sounded more like a hymn than it does here."

Village Voice: Good. "Gus Van Sant has never been a risk-averse filmmaker, but he directs his Harvey Milk biopic so carefully, there might be a Ming vase balanced on his head. Van Sant's steps are deliberate, his posture is straight, his attitude is responsible, and his eyes are fixed firmly on the prize. No less cautious, Sean Penn drops his habitual banty roosterism to play Milk, the martyred gay activist and San Francisco supervisor, with the concentration of an actor entrusted to portray the future subject of a U.S. postage stamp... The quintessential 21st-century Gus Van Sant movie has been a boldly experimental death-trip. Elephant and Paranoid Park both fractured chronology, Gerry and Last Days distended duration, but all revolved around young protagonists whose mortality was never less than self-evident. Milk, too, has a doomed protagonist, but what's experimental here is Van Sant's faith in the old-fashioned vérités: Content trumps form as communal solidarity redeems individual sacrifice."

USA Today: Good. "Milk has one of the finest ensemble casts this year and a magnificent, career-topping performance by Sean Penn, who disappears into the title role... The film has particular resonance given the history-making presidential election. It is especially evocative because, as with President-elect Barack Obama, Milk's platform was built on hope. It also is timely given the outcome of Proposition 8 in California, which resulted in a ban on gay marriage. Mostly, though, Milk is a powerful drama stirringly told. Milk may have been martyred at the prime of his political life, but screenwriter Dustin Lance Black does not attempt to sanctify him. Rather, we get a clear-eyed portrait of man who is idealistic, determined, sardonic and ambitious. Penn's Oscar-caliber transformation is breathtaking, and the saga of one man's fight for human rights is engrossing."

Los Angeles Times: So-So. "The idea of a film on these horrific events has been in the works for more than a dozen years, with directors including Bryan Singer and Oliver Stone expressing interest. The current film, featuring a strong and convincing performance by Sean Penn, was directed by Gus Van Sant in the kind of bland heroic mode that has been a Hollywood staple forever. There's nothing terribly wrong with "Milk," it's just that its celebration of a culture and a neighborhood, its valentine to the early days of gay rights activism, is mostly more conventional than compelling."