4/5 stars

Dir. Gus Van Sant

Starring: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco

Rating: R

128 minutes

In a year where concentration on actors has been dominated by attention-grabbing performances by Heath Ledger (“The Dark Knight”) and Robert Downey Jr. (“Tropic Thunder”), it’s a quiet, humble, happy performance from Sean Penn in “Milk” that stands a head and shoulders above any other — lead or supporting.

Penn stars as Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official who was assassinated shortly after taking office. It’s a rather traditional biopic that is director Gus Van Sant’s (“Good Will Hunting,” “Elephant”) most conventional film in years, but Penn is so involving and charismatic that the inner workings of the film itself tend to fade to the background.

Penn, who has already picked up best actor awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as a Golden Globe nomination, will almost certainly snag the Oscar in a turn far more deserving than his overblown and overrated performance in 2003’s “Mystic River.”

Penn has managed to somewhat shake off the brash persona that he embodied in the ‘80s, when he served time in jail for decking an extra (and lampooning it later by knocking around “Saturday Night Live’s” Church Lady), but with “Milk,” he’s managed to swing as far away from that personality as possible. This is an unknown Sean Penn, and it’s likely that he’s never smiled this much in the rest of his performances combined.

“Milk” is structured as a series of vignettes that track Milk’s career from his initial move to San Francisco to his election to city supervisor in 1977. Along the way, we’re introduced to Milk’s longtime partner Scott Smith (James Franco, “Pineapple Express”), political activist Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch, “Into the Wild”) and Milk’s later lover Jack Lira (Diego Luna, “The Terminal”).

Van Sant allows the film’s narrative to unwind at a leisurely pace, which works for the material most of the time. There’s plenty of thematic repetition, and at times, the film threatens to devolve into a series of political speeches that mirror one another, but every scene is lifted from that danger by Penn. This is a film that clearly draws its lifeblood from its actors, and probably would not have the legs to stand without them, but it’s hard to be concerned with that during the course of the movie.

The supporting cast fills out the film nicely, with Franco and Hirsch giving especially strong performances. Josh Brolin (“No Country for Old Men”) is a little bland as disturbed fellow city supervisor Dan White, but he doesn’t make his character an easy target in a balanced performance.

It’s clear from the beginning of the film how “Milk” is going to end, but it doesn’t make the climax — a sequence that is directed perfectly by Van Sant — any less affecting. The emotional impact is a direct result of the time spent with Penn — he makes the audience feel in a genuine way for a man with whom they’ve spent just a little over two hours.

As a biopic, “Milk” is not remarkable, but as a visit with Harvey Milk via Sean Penn, it’s moving.

— Dusty Somers is a journalism junior.