CL’s Curt Holman: “Big Love” writer Dustin Lance Black delivers a script that hits the familiar beats of Hollywood biopics all too predictably. At times the dialogue sounds written for trailers rather than dramatic scenes: “Harvey, what’s with all this political activist crap?” “You’ll be the first openly gay man elected to major office!” When people approach Milk with big pieces of news — “You need to see this!” — the scenes feel like lessons in recent history.
In Contention: On the whole, it’s a shame Gus Van Sant was working from such a by-the-book, greatest hits screenplay, but his creativity as a director allows the film to steer clear of some anticipated pitfalls.
Time Out New York: “Milk,” like several political biopics, contains its share of awkwardly shoehorned-in speechifying. But what the film lacks in daring narrative it makes up for with its electric portrayal of its radical subject.
TNR’s Christopher Orr: Van Sant and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black shamelessly rip off the earlier documentary, framing the film early with footage of then-supervisor Dianne Feinstein announcing the murders and audio of the tape-recorded “will” that Milk wanted played in the event of his “death by assassination.”
The Oregonian: Perhaps as a result, the script moves in rather pedestrian, one-darned-thing-after-another fashion; too, on the level of dialogue it’s often flat, expository and workmanlike.
It’s a testament to Van Sant’s way with actors that the performances are better than the lines and that the film tugs undeniably at the heart as the awful finale falls. But a lack of poetry and freshness in the writing nag.
Filed under: Film, gay issues
But does the trailer play I Am Feeling Alright?