Milk is a biographical feature film about Harvey Milk, who was also the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. Since Milk was nominated for an Oscar and everyone has been writing and talking about it I won’t get into the story more than that.

First of, I have to say that I wasn’t as impressed with the film as I expected. Sean Penn, of course, was excellent (he really deserved the Academy Award…). What I liked

was that his Harvey Milk was definitely gay but it a very subtle way which I really haven’t seen on screen before. He only does what Hollywood seems to think are “typically gay movements” on rare occasions but somehow Sean managed to give off a sort of “gay vibe” over the entire course of the film (is that a politically correct thing to say? It is quite hard to write all this without offending anyone…). All I want to say is that Sean Penn is amazing.

Now, I do like Gus Van Sant’s work (somehow I, just then, had the urge to check if this is his real name, but surprisingly his actual name, according to IMDb, is much worse: Gus Greene Van Sant Junior… anyway) and with all the hype about the film I was possibly expecting too much but seemed to be waiting for “the greatest film of 2008″ to start and it never really did. I am trying to figure out what it was exactly that didn’t happen. Because the performances (not only Sean Penn) were spot on. Everyone really gave their best.

The story is interesting. Harvey Milk has had quite a life. The filmmaking was flawless. So what is it that bothered me? Maybe the film was just too perfect? Or maybe my expectations were too high? All I know is that I wasn’t really moved by it (and I am quite easily moved by films, I mean, I cried while watching Ally McBeal…). I went out of the movie theatre and was immediately back in reality. The film didn’t stick with me. I do honestly think that if I had never read or heard anything before watching the movie I would have found it to be average. Maybe a 7 out of 10. Now I am wondering if there is something wrong with me because everyone (EVERYONE) else seems to be absolutely elated by watching Milk…