Before Night Falls

Arenas' life zigzags before us in a manner as heady and unpredictable as it must have felt to the man who lived it.

With Before Night Falls, Schnabel has moved to an entirely new plane of cinematic achievement.

Most of all it's the emotional and spiritual arc of an exile, in all its terrible isolation, that gives ''Before Night Falls'' its power.

A thoughtful, bittersweet film biography of the Cuban writer that captures both his irrepressible spirit and his sometimes overwhelming melancholy.

As good as it is, Before Night Falls might not work if Schnabel hadn't found a leading man to hold it together and the Spanish actor Javier Bardem has the understated charisma to pull it off.

A personal eulogy, from one artist to another, and an indictment of all systems of government that deny people the right to free expression and the full realization of their talent.

Under Schnabel's direction, it becomes stilted and static, if not simplistic.

While at times fleetingly fascinating, this work overwhelms itself with cinematic styles that intertwine into a vaguely incoherent, artistic ‘splash ‘n drip’ type exercise. Director Julian Schnabel’s intercutting of imagined events into the general story flow often doesn’t run smoothly as it should. If anything, the musical aspects of the production offer more interest than its variable visual styles, with composer Carter Burwell contributing considerable moodiness to several sequences. The homosexuality on display here is more the selfish-gratification type than the ‘relationship’ variety. And with the Bi-sexual aspect being highlighted, it's little wonder sexual diseases proliferated in this society. Those who use their pro-creational organ in a ‘sewer’ (so to speak) as regularly as these, invite serious risk factors. Added to this, the un-naturally high number of male ‘partners’ Reinaldo Arenas boasted, virtually assured his sad and painful demise. Now, we also have the added threat of Monkeypox, credited as being born and spread within these lifestyles. The historical study of the introduction of Socialism into Cuban society and its impacts as displayed within this story - tends to confirm what many only learn after inviting this ominous system into its governing powers. While elements of the basic story often come across as somewhat fanciful, the cast does justice to the situations (some harrowing) within these flamboyant, risqué circles. This will be a film of limited interest to mainstream viewers (as the box office returns confirm) and may offer little enjoyment.