I've owned this movie FOREVER and just never watched it. I've seen Javier Bardem in numerous roles since this movie came out, but never went back to watch this one, in which he plays Cuban poet/novelist Reinaldo Arenes. Also, until watching the trailer, I totally thought it was subtitled. Umm... I guess not! It's directed by Academy Award nominated director Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), and apparently his wife and 5 children all appear in the film, including his daughter Stella, who used to date John Fusciante (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers). Johnny Depp is also in the film (and is always great), and plays 2 roles, one of which appears to be a woman. Sean Penn and Diego Luno (Milk co-stars) are in it as well. I was trying to find a trailer without all the award information scrolling through it, but I failed at the task. Here's the trailer:
I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting with this film, but it actually took me a while to get into it. The Depp and Penn roles were very small, but good, as always. The movie was well made. The cinematography was beautiful! That's something that I noticed right off the bat. It was well written, well acted, well made, but just didn't feel all that "new". I almost feel like that's a terrible thing to say about the story of someone's life, but that's how I felt. I knew nothing of Arenes prior to watching this. What a failure of a reviewer I am right now! This movie is more than a "meh" to me, but not a "rush out to see this NOW" reaction either.
Final verdict: thumbs up, but no need to bump this to the top of your Netflix queue.
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