Kind and/or pandering reviews treat this film as "fantastical" or "lyrical" account of the life of Cuban writer Reynaldo Arenas, but this merely obscures the film's lack of coherent concept, writing and direction.<br /><br />It might have helped matters if this film about life in Castro Cuba had been made in Spanish. Instead, the audience must struggle to hear and comprehend Latin American actors speaking poorly articulated English. Adding to the confusion, Sean Penn appears in a cameo role of campesino. Here's an American actor trying to play a Cuban actor trying to speak English. Yet, when Arenas' writings are quoted, the soundtrack switches to Spanish, translated into English subtitles.<br /><br />I left before the film ended, just after director Schnabel shifted to the technique of reprising a scene with different outcomes. I'd just seen Stephen Frears do something similar in "High Fidelity", to great comic effect. In "Before Night Falls" the same technique is bumbling and ineffective. Affection and respect for a gay writer who escaped from Castro's Cuba is no guarantee that you'll make a good film.