Review of Before Night Falls (2000) by Marcus1138 . — 20 Apr 2008

"Maybe the last time you bent over to tie your boots.".

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This was nowhere near as good as I was led to believe t would be. That said it's still a pretty solid movie.

Javier bardem once again proves he can do anything. It's hard to explain, but he somehow totally embodies his characters and you never feel him acting. Here he plays a gay guy who never once feels like parody or faked. it's hard to explain exactly, but in general people playing gay guy's in movies just turn up the camp, up the gestures to 11. This performance just feels genuine. Javier just makes it feel real.

Outside of the central performance everything else is fairly standard. I love the look of the movie. It's lived in and grimey.The story is well told. Though I have to say it's all over the place. it never gets Dark enough, but is never light enough to just sit back and enjoy.

There is one thing this movie has though. Cameo's. there's loads of familiar faces. Two of which is an almost unrecoganisable Sean penn doing a stellar bit of character acting and Johnney Depp playing not one, but two Kooky as fuck characters. Seriously, both of these roles make Jack Sparrow look as straight laced as Orlando Bloom. Two little scenes that are fun, weird and just plain Depp.

I liked this movie, bits of it a lot, But I just don't think i'd ever be in the mood to watch it again. Javier has been in better movies since an delivered better performances and the story isn't fresh at all. it's good. I enjoyed it. but it's a one and done for me.

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"Leonardo da Vinci was homosexual, so was Michelangelo, Socrates, Shakespeare, and almost every other figure that has formed what we have come to understand as beauty. ".