Before Night Falls

Reinaldo Arenas was a gifted Cuban novelist and poet whose life of poverty, hardship, revolution, censorship, imprisonment and exile never stemmed his formulation of passionate prose. In Before Night Falls, artist/filmmaker Julian Schnabel (Basquiat) pays devotional homage to the writer, with a soul-probing and beautifully cinematic adaptation of his memoirs, published posthumously after he succumbed to AIDS in New York City in 1990. While the film boasts powerful symbolism and makes telling political statements about freedom and persecution, what really drives this engrossing (if overlong) biography is the potent but subtle, complex and intimate portrayal of the author by Oscar nominee Javier Bardem (Boca a Boca). His natural, unaffected charisma and his generous smile lend such nuanced joy, melancholy, and spirit to Arenas that it feels like he's sitting next to you, whispering his life story in your ear--especially during the dulcet, moving voice-overs quoted from the author's poetry. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)