Julian Schnabel's "Before Night Falls" is an artistic look at the life of gay Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. While many biopics resort to cliches about the Suffering Artist, Schnabel paints the picture of a troubled poet,who is at once a hero and a libertine, a freedom fighter and a victim of his own success. Schnabel's background as an artist makes "Before Night Falls" a feast for the eyes as well as the ears (there are excerpts of Arenas' poetry read aloud)



Javier Bardem is luminous as Reinaldo Arenas, showing him as a troubled genius who lived and died on his own terms. His character is deeply sympathetic,and his death from assisted suicide/AIDS is wrenching to watch. His life asks questions about what it means to be free. Arenas took many handsome lovers-Olivier Martinez is wonderful as Arenas' ex-lover who stays beside his side as he dies from AIDS-and in the end,chooses what he deems a "death with dignity." What does it mean to be free?



Sean Penn stars as a peasant farmer who recruits Arenas into Fidel Castro's revolution,a revolution that quickly devolves into repression. Johnny Depp has a dual role-as a freedom-loving drag queen who bonds with Arenas in prison- as well as a cruel,repressed torturer.



"Before Night Falls" is a poetic film. It's one of Javier Bardem's early achievements,and it's worth watching. Like a poem,it is open to interpretation,and it is beautiful.