Before Night Falls describes the life of Reinaldo Arenas, a Cuban poet who eventually went into exile after being persecuted for his writings and his homosexuality.
It’s an interesting story, to be sure. Arenas grew up in great poverty, but he had an irrepressible gift for writing. He was initially enthusiastic about Castro. The period following the revolution was blissful, with a job at the national library, plenty of leisure time on the beach, and freedom to experiment and express oneself, creatively and sexually. Eventually, however, the government became hostile towards Arenas and his associates for their free ways. After many years of censorship and a tough stint in prison, Arenas took the opportunity to flee Cuba with the great exile in 1980. Alas, his lot improved very little in the United States; poverty-stricken and dying of AIDS, New York seemed a harsh place to end up. (According to Arenas, the main difference between communism and capitalism is that when they kick you in a socialist regime, you have to turn around and thank them; in the free world, you can go ahead and scream.)
Spanish actor Javier Bardem is great in the lead role. With his clever intensity, he’s like an Iberian response to Robert Downey Jr. Sean Penn is so well disguised as Cuco Sanchez, I never even recognized him! Johnny Depp also appears in two very different roles: as a transvestite inmate and as a brutal Lieutenant.
As cool as they were, Penn and Depp’s appearances distracted somewhat from the low-key, unknown cast of the rest of the film. This is similar to director Julian Schnabel’s previous artist bio, Basquiat, which featured an unknown lead with lots of big names in secondary roles. As with the previous film, Before Night Falls feels authentic and affectionate, yet it doesn’t grip the viewer as hard as it might. All the facts are faithfully presented, but somehow, they fail to move you.
Because I wasn’t utterly engrossed, I can’t rave about this movie as one of the best of the decade. I do recommend it, though, because Arenas’ is a very interesting and relevant story, told with obvious attention to detail.