Milk

There's no doubt that Sean Penn is a remarkable director and actor, that's very apparent in Milk . It's the true story of the first openly gay elected official.
A bit like his masterpiece, Into The Wild, Penn gets the ending out of the way early on.
Unfortunately, Milk is littered with outstanding performances but hotch-potch storyline mean the parts are much greater than the sum, if that makes sense.
Penn is at the same time captivating and annoying as Harvey Milk, a gay activist who decides to run for public office.
At the start Harvey meets, and picks up, Scott Smith (James Franco) and they start what appears an unlikely relationship, but one that neither realise the significance of.
As Harvey gets deeper into campaigning it is at the expense of his relationship.
This is the tragedy of Milk, as far as I could see. He becomes so caught up in the cause that he and Smith drift apart and only really begin to reconnect just before Milk is killed.
As I said, there are some good performances here. I thought Franco was the standout personally, even though Penn has been nominated for everything. And, Emile Hirsch who Penn directed in Into The Wild is a shade tough to pick out straight away but he also puts in a solid performance despite his character Cleve being quite out there.
The film came together fairly well towards the end but it didn't grab my interest as much as I expected from all the rave reviews. I almost hate to say this but I think it was a bit too, well, you know. A 7.5 out of 10.