Milk

The ending thanks the Oscar-winning documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk" for its contribution to the film. As well it should. If a biopic covers the same ground as a documentary, why make the biopic? Because that question goes unanswered, the film suffers from the same fatal flaw as "Ali," the last half hour of which is just a lesser version of "When We Were Kings." The overall effect is better than "Paranoid Park" and Gus Van Sant's other walking epics, but it's no "Good Will Hunting."

Van Sant does give us some great work, though, especially when he veers from the ground already covered and instead depicts the personal lives of gay men in the '70s. Sean Penn and James Franco are good together. I also recall a blue-hued wrestling match between Penn and his second boyfriend, a scene that recalls a certain blue-hued fight scene from "Double Impact." But the problem is that these moments are interspersed with the biopic-required rote scenes of political talk, marches, meetings, etc., and that doesn't do much for me.