From NetFlix:

Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking, Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play about love, loss and loneliness — the basis for this six-hour HBO miniseries — took more than 10 years to make it to the small screen. Starring Al Pacino (as real-life legal counsel Roy Cohn) and Meryl Streep, the drama examines the first few years of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980s, set against the moral absolutism and unresponsive backdrop of the Reagan Administration.

After doing my best to discourage you from watching this long two-disc, six chapter theatrical production turned into a film, persist if you must. Although definitely not for everyone, I enjoyed this film. If nothing else, it is certainly original.

Why you should NOT see this film:

• Much of the dialog is just psycho babble or worse. Sometimes it just doesn’t make much sense.
• The lines are said as though you were watching a play on stage, that is to say, it is a declamatory style of speaking. It makes Meryl Streep seem wooden.
• The plot centers on AIDS. Oh yes, and it is all about AIDS. Moreover there is a lot of discussion about AIDS.
• Talk about Magic Realism. Emma Thompson as an angel is over the top. Have you even seen an angel have lightning bolt sex with a human ?

Still not convinced, hey ? Then Padre Antonio will give you a brief historical background. An excellent summary of the life of Roy Cohn may be found in the Wikipedia article.. For this film you only need to know that:

• Roy Cohn is despised by the left as a conniving, self-serving bastard. Read ALL the Wikipedia article to see why.
• Roy Cohn is closely associated with the anti-communist Senator Joe McCarthy and the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover (enough said ?)
• Roy Cohn was instrumental in convicting Ethel Rosenberg.
• Roy Cohn was an active, closeted gay man who hypocritically persecuted gays in public offices.
• Roy Cohn, though never convicted of a multitude of accusations, was eventually disbarred for many reasons.
• Roy Cohn died of AIDS while protesting that it was liver cancer.

And now for Ethel Rosenberg. Again see the Wikipedia article. Notable items:

• It is still debateable that Ethel was guilty.
• Roy Cohn was instrumental in convicting Ethel Rosenberg.
• Meryl Streep really was made to look just like Ethel.

OK, some reasons why you SHOULD see this film:

• Al Pacino is pitch-perfect as Roy Cohn.
• You get to see each actor play several parts. Can you spot them?
• If you have a special place in your heart for Mormons, you will love this trip. Patrick Wilson is pitch-perfect as a gay Mormon who seems to have stepped out of Gentlemen’s Quarterly.
• And where else could you see an angel having electric sex with a human ?

HAVE FUN !