Milk (15)

Alison Rowat's Review

Sean Penn is superb as gay rights campaigner and politician Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant’s stirring biopic. As it follows Milk from his arrival in San Francisco at the beginning of the seventies to his eventual election to the city council and his fateful meeting with Dan White (Josh Brolin), Van Sant’s picture is as much a guide to the counterculture times as it is a portrait of Milk.

Though Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) involves himself too deeply in the details of the local political scene, Penn ensures the picture stays riveting. The 21 Grams and Mystic River star duked it out with Mickey Rourke for the best actor Golden Globe – The Wrestler won – and both, by rights, should feature in the Oscar nominations out today. For my money, Penn’s charming Milk is the better of the two turns.

Paul Greenwood's Review

Finally managing to bring a story to the big screen that has evaded filmmakers for decades, this outstanding biographical drama charts the final years in the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States.

Beginning in the early 1970s, Milk (Sean Penn) is dissatisfied with the direction of his life in New York, and moves west to San Francisco with his lover Scott (James Franco). In Castro Street, where gay-friendly businesses thrive, his camera shop becomes a centre for people to hang out, but there’s still prejudice and violence even in a city as tolerant as San Francisco, and this inspires him to enter politics.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, by 1978 Harvey is elected to the office of city supervisor, where he becomes involved in the fight for rights for gay teachers and other employees, but makes an enemy along the way in colleague Dan White (Josh Brolin).

Penn is utterly mesmerising as Milk, effortlessly getting across both his charisma as an activist and his humanity. It’s far and away the most likeable he’s ever been on screen, toning down his usual blazing intensity in favour of enthusiasm and compassion.

While it’s a fascinating portrayal of a time, a place and a struggle, we come out of Milk not having learned very much about Harvey himself. Episodes involving his boyfriends seem like side issues, with a whiny Diego Luna proving particularly distracting. But it’s this very elusiveness that helps elevate the film above the usual biopic formula.

Coming off the elliptical affectation of Paranoid Park and Elephant, director Gus van Sant brings a graceful touch but also expertly marshals crowd scenes, creating moments so poignant and stirring in the process that the lack of insight into Harvey’s personal life becomes less of an issue. Where Milk succeeds is in its passionate but non-preachy longing for a world where equality, be it in terms of sexuality, race or gender, doesn’t require protests and demonstrations for fundamental human rights to prevail.