"Milk" witnesses Gus Van Sant return to the mainstream after nearly a decade of absurd "art-house" films, a curse he might have felt was necessary after directing "Psycho" and "Finding Forrester". Van Sant's return to an almost unanimous mainstream approval and box-office success in "Milk" is nearly justified by the film's excessive vitality that makes the spectator coming away appreciating the film-making while feeling intensely touched, even inspired, by the blistering life at the film's centre.
Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), wired up by the realization that he has wasted his life, impulsively moves to San Francisco's Castro District with his boyfriend Scott Smith (James Franco) and then decides to run for public office after becoming involved with countless social initiatives.
Van Sant introduces at the early part of "Milk" a number of grandiose visual choices, which promote the film's incisive screenplay, while reflecting an innovative, passionate direction. Although Van Sant has been going through a melancholic meditation for quite sometime, in "Milk" he changes direction because Harvey Milk himself is not that kind of figure. He cannot be a laid back person and just contemplate life. He has been such a person until the eve of his fortieth birthday. Yet, from that point onwards, Harvey Milk becomes a man of words and action, a person of rare energy, an aggressive, resolutely offensive, press-savvy activist and a politician with the influential aptitude to recruit people to a cause.
As the story develops, Van Sant brings in some of his favourite melancholic, meditative moments just enough to make "Milk" a forceful character study and not a truly conventional biopic as some critics have argued. The photography of the film is simple and stunning. Particularly, the rally scenes, which are shot with a hand-held camera, really succeed in transporting the spectator to the atmosphere of San Francisco of the 70s.
"Milk" is a film of historic significance directed in an intimate and entertaining way. The film's advocates claim that being directed in a skillful and tender way, "Milk" is smartly handled reflecting not only an unquestionable quality of writing, acting and directing, but also a feel of real life and credible personal trade off. Also, it transcends to people a feeling of hope through the inspiring figure of Harvey Milk and his pursuit to legitimize his identity and give hope to his community.
Sean Penn probably performs the best role of his career, thus he earned the Oscar nomination for the Best Actor. The film includes also an equally strong supporting cast that features, among others, Emile Hirsch, Alison Pill, and Josh Brolin.