This autobiographical movie follows the life of Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem). It starts with his childhood in 1943. After the victory of the revolution, he gains friends and success as a young writer in Havana. It's heady days of a sexual revolution until his homosexuality is deemed dangerous. He tries to escape to America but is imprisoned. His writing gains some popularity outside of Cuba. In prison, he is surprisingly valued by the other prisoners for his writing skills. He writes his novel in between writing for everybody else. Bon Bon (Johnny Depp) is a transvestite inmate and Lt. Victor (Johnny Depp) is their vicious guard. Arenas becomes part of the boat lift exodus and arrives in New York.Javier Bardem is simply amazing. His presence is incredible. The movie is a bit long. The early childhood has interesting stuff but is not strictly necessary. It could have started around 1960 after Castro marches into Havana. It could be a bit more interesting style-wise. Johnny Depp is a little weird and seems out of place. Through it all, there is the great performance from Javier Bardem.

Visual artist Julian Schnabel was the perfect choice for bringing to the screen the richly colorful life and times of Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990). BEFORE NIGHT FALLS began as a book, Arenas' memoir, translated and released in 1993: time has aged the eloquence of this memoir but has not marred the impact of the brilliance of the writing. Arenas wrote with a degree of truth and keen observation that makes his moments of antics with his characters like comic relief in a Shakespearean play. The screenplay was written by Lázaro Gómez Carriles, Cunningham O'Keefe and Julian Schnabel who with great homage to Arenas made his life as narrated by Arenas, in an inextricable mix of his memories, dreams, nightmares and pure fiction. He grew up as poor, naked illegitimate child, joined Castro's Cuban revolution and became an intellectual, employed in the public library. After discovering his gay sexuality, he soon shares in the regime's inconsistent persecution. His work and life become dominated by the mix of temptation, fear, betrayal and man hunting in both senses. Finally he makes it to Manhattan, only to get caught in another trap for which there is only one tragic escape in the end - his death from AIDS.Arenas had a gift of distilling Magical Realism, transforming even the radical ugliness of Castro's Cuba into the topical paradise so beloved by Cubans everywhere. This cinematic version lets the viewer experience that rich literary output of one of the most exciting writers of the last century. For example, 'Walking along streets that collapse from crumbling sewers. Past buildings that you jump to avoid because they will fall on you. Past grim faces that size you up and sentence you. Past closed shops, closed markets, closed cinemas, closed parks, closed cafés. Sometimes showing dusty signs, justifications: "CLOSED FOR RENOVATION," "CLOSED FOR REPAIRS." What kind of repairs? When will these so-called renovations be finished? When at last will they begin? Closed... closed... closed... everything closed. I arrive, open the countless padlocks and run up the temporary stairs. There she is, waiting for me. I pull off the cover, and stare at her dusty, cold shape I clean of the dust and caress her. With my hand, delicately, I wipe clean her back, her base and her sides. In front of her, I feel desperate and happy. I run my fingers over her keyboard and suddenly it all starts up. With a tinkling sound the music begins, little by little, then faster; now full speed. Walls, trees, streets, cathedrals, faces and beaches. Cells, mini- cells, huge cells. Starry nights, bare feet, pines, clouds. Hundreds, thousands, millions of parrots. A stool, a climbing plant, they all answer my call, all come to me. The walls recede, the roof vanishes, and you float quite naturally. You float uprooted, dragged off, lifted high. Transported, immortalized, saved. Thanks to that subtle, continuous rhythm, that music, that incessant tap-tap.'Javier Bardem completely inhabits the poet that was Arenas - a performance so delicately nuanced that it remains one of the great moments in cinema. He is ably supported by Olivier Martinez as Lázaro Gómez Carriles, and incidental roles by Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Diego Luna, Jerzy Skolimowski, Hector Babenco and a host of other fine actors. This is one of those films that remains a standard of the industry and certainly Javier Bardem will never be forgotten for his inhabiting the essence of what made Reinaldo Arenas a great writer. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

This is one of those films I like to call "pseudo intellectual".I disagree with Berardinelli here, and almost totally agree with Berge Garabedian's review. On one thing however I do disagree also with Garabedian: in my opinion the Direction was far from good. On the contrary, I believe the Direction to be one of the major shortfalls of this motion picture. And honestly, considering Schnabel is a painter, the cinematography, the visuals should have been much better as well.Having said that, now on to the main 'problem' with this film. As far as I can see, the material (the story) the director and producers had to work with here was first class (as were the actors). What they managed to do with it however is only to produce two hours of first class boredom. In more capable hands (maybe a good film maker instead of a painter, who would do better to stick to what he is allegedly good at...) this could (and should) have been a monumental motion picture, an epic to remember. Instead, what we got was an abstract canvas with randomly painted splashes of color that nobody (including those who praise the film, believe me) can understand. Oh well, if it so difficult to understand, it must be great doesn't it...?Art? Not in a thousand years! Skip this one if you can, it's a waste of time.

Reinaldo Arenas: Leonardo da Vinci was homosexual, so was Michelangelo, Socrates, Shakespeare, and almost every other figure that has formed what we have come to understand as beauty.It is fascinating that the socialist government in Cuba would take the same position as right-wing religious leaders in our country. I am sure that James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and others like them would not be happy to know that they are no different than Fidel Castro.This was the story of the poet Reinaldo Arenas, his mistreatment at the hands of the Cuban government, and his eventual escape to America in the Mariel boat lift; and Javier Bardem (Mar adentro, No Country for Old Men) was magnificent in the role that played almost like a documentary. The film was cinema-graphically brilliant, filmed near Cuba in the Yucatan. The soundtrack was equally impressive.Besides Bardem, it also featured Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy). Depp played a dual role as Bon Bon, a transvestite and was also Lt. Victor, the head of the prison in which Arenas was incarcerated. I am continually amazed at Depp's versatility.An outstanding Latino cast in a super film.