Brilliant Portrayal by Sean Penn

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2009)

And Gus Van Sant is to be commended on his remarkable direction.
I'm one who saw the documentary on Harvey Milk several years ago and it has stayed with me. I didn't expect this film to enhance my experience of the documentary, but it did, much to my surprise.
Penn's performance is nothing short of stunning. He literally channels Harvey, by gesture and speech but most of all by the ever present smile. Harvey, as portrayed in the original documentary had a boundless joie de vivre and an irrepressible sense of self and a conviction of his own role in making history. Sean nails this.
The film uses a series of short and sharp vignettes to tell the story of Harvey's life after his 40th birthday, his attempts to get election three times and his relationships.
If there was any fault to find in the film it was in the occasional continuity lapses (one involving a dog that was severe enough to jerk me out of the film) and the sometimes irritating camera angles and muffled sound quality. Another was the dearth of visible homosexual women who were quite prominent in this era of the seventies.
But on the whole, I found Harvey's romantic love stories believable and his personal charm captivating.
Kudos to Sean Penn particularly and to the supporting cast of Josh Brolin, as the possibly closeted and mentally ill Dan White. Diego Luna, Joseph Cross and Emile Hirsch are also great but James Franco is a knockout as the one, great, romantic love interest at the root of Harvey's life.
8 out of 10. Sean well deserves his Oscar nomination.