By Matt Soergel
Florida Times-Union

Before Night Falls is an unflinching, funny, tragic and poetic film that's well-worth the effort of adventurous moviegoers, especially with the deserved Oscar nomination this week of Spanish actor Javier Bardem.

He plays Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, a homosexual and counterrevolutionary -- those two facets of his life were inseparable -- in Castro's Cuba.

Before Night Falls, which opens today at the Pablo 9 in Jacksonville Beach, was directed by Julian Schnabel, who made the trippy art movie, Basquiat, a few years ago. Before Night Falls is similarly satisfying, voyaging back and forth through Arenas' life, slipping in and out of dreams and visions and harsh, harsh reality.

There's also a strong sense of humor, much of it extremely earthy. But it's always with the awareness of menace: Arenas' irreverent writing and his homosexuality made his plight in Cuba most dangerous, the film makes clear.

Schnabel has a artist's eye, which shows up in dreamy visions of an ocean escape, a hot-air balloon flight, a nighttime convertible ride in the snow. But his depiction of Havana in the '60s and '70s is more grounded: The city and countryside are gloriously re-created (filming took place in Mexico).

The film rides on the performance of Bardem, who really is remarkable. He travels from tentative and shy to world-weary and confident, with stops at blissfully happy and terrified along the way. The genius of his role, though, is that he's never larger than life. He's just one man, hardly perfect but eminently human.

He gets notable support from a couple of America's edgier actors. Johnny Depp plays a dual role, both of which are quite spectacular. We won't say any more than that. And Sean Penn shows up, almost unrecognizable and very funny. Look for him early on, when you see the oxen and the cart.