Milk: MSN Review

The supporting cast is also on sterling form, particularly the ever-reliable Josh Brolin as Milk’s uptight and insecure fellow board member and James Franco as his on-off stoner boyfriend, but this is ultimately a character study expertly executed by Penn, who appears in almost every scene.

 

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Director Van Sant meanwhile seems torn between filming a straightforward biopic and giving in to his artier impulses. His last four films have been as experimental as US cinema gets, but he has also previously flirted with the mainstream by directing the Oscar winning Good Will Hunting. Milk is a genuine mix of these two styles, meaning that dated home-movie footage and trademark shots of clouds sometimes sit uncomfortably next to straightforward courtroom sequences.

 

Still, the hands of a more mainstream director (Ron Howard for example) may have produced a typical and forgettable underdog movie, while if Van Sant had stuck to his art-cinema roots the incredible story may not have been given the gravitas it deserves. But the material has inherent strength of its own. Harvey Milk’s story is an important one that needs to be told. Any occasional inconsistencies in style can be forgiven as the talents of Penn and Van Sant combine to make Milk an engaging, powerful biopic, much deserving of any awards that may be coming its way soon.