[Review] Milk

Milk

At first, I was a bit reluctant to talk about how I felt about this movie.  Then I had a few conversations and realized that I'm not some lone nut.  So I'll come out and say it: Milk is a mediocre movie with one or two great acting performances.

That's right - this movie was lame.  My friend and I both fell asleep briefly during the first five minutes, and neither of us was particularly impressed with the rest.  A lot of archival footage was used to supplement the movie footage; frankly, I found the footage to be much more compelling than the movie.  The film itself suffered from a leaden feeling that it never shook.

Was Sean Penn brilliant?  Sure.  But the rest of the movie suffered from an unmistakable stagnation of pace and drama.  I knew what was going to happen, and the film did a piss-poor job of building the tension to the climax.  I couldn't connect with any of the characters beyond Harvey Milk.  Major events took place, and I found myself unmoved. 

Given the recent political postings on OP, this next bit may surprise you: I think the biggest reason Milk has received the publicity it has is that the media, critics and fans all feel this is a movie that they should like.  It's based on a moving, uplifting story with a lot of drama attached.  The real-life personalities involved are compelling.  The cause (equal rights for homosexuals) is one that liberals get behind fairly easily.  It's like everyone wanted this movie to be great so badly that they responded to the singular greatness of Penn's performance and applied it to the movie as a whole. 

It's very telling when the public receives a movie worse than the critics do.  Critics have Milk rated at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, while the RT Community raters have it at 85%.  I can't say I'm surprised, which is why I'm giving this film 2 reels.  You would probably be better off watching the best documentary about Milk and Moscone than you would be seeing this movie.  

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