interesting movie

Rating: 7/10 (12 October 2012)

a movie about 'the first American openly-gay successful politician' would have to try very hard to not be at least somewhat interesting. and this movie has no problem accomplishing that (admittedly easy) task.
but were it gets more interesting than some other biopics is that this movie does not paint harvey as a saint (with only a few very minor faults added for dramatic tension): instead he is portrayed as your average selfish, manipulating and dishonest politician. who will steer up social unrest in order to play the us (gays) against them (original san fransico-nites) card and get votes, but also use whatever other issue he happens to stumble upon (dogpoop) for political gain. at the same time it also shows a non-dbag side: he cares about his lover, he fights for equal rights for gays, he is insecure about 'being 40 and accomplishing nothing'. all together creating the kind of believable multi-dimensional character that is extremely rare in Hollywood.
a good choice in my opinion, because it highlights that even if a gay person is a selfish scumbag that should not take away from his fundamental human rights (to not be beaten up, to live with the person he loves, to run for office, etc).
its not clear to me though why the movie spends so much time on his assassination, when it is clear (in the movie at least, i don't know about reality) that his murder has nothing to do with his sexual orientation or political ideas. it is just a normal random workplace shooting (as far as such a horrible thing could ever be considered 'normal'). a co-workers hits a very dark spot in his personal and professional life and takes it out on the guy that symbolizes his ruined career: in this case the guy who made a political trade about an issue that was very important to said co-worker, but who then backed out at the very last moment during the actual vote, without any prior warning or explanation about that last-minute betrayal.