Allen Ginsberg Courtesy of James Franco

The film about one of the most controversial poems of the last century is saved by the acting of James Franco.

The directors had originally intended for ‘Howl’ to be a documentary, when they signed onto the project in the late 90′s. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman are two time oscar winners for best documentary and the build-up to this film would seem to have high expectations.

But when the biopic was infused with animation and dramatized re-enactments, it left behind the documentary style and the the film was taken in an entirely different direction. What’s left is a fragmented narrative, all barely held together by the acting of Franco.

Nearly all of the films’ dialogue comes from the trial records, interviews with Ginsberg himself, and from ‘Howl’ itself. It gives the film a feeling of authenticity and it makes the performance seem less forceful-when Franco is Ginsberg, he’s merely reciting the actual words of the poet himself and hasn’t taken excessive liberties in his portrayal. No imagined ruminations or relationships, nothing painfully sentimental like that.

But then there’s the animation to deal with. It’s intended to be a visual interpretation of the the actual poem ‘Howl’, complete with despairing cartoon figures in cold and burning cityscapes, phallic palm trees and skyscrapers ejaculating fireworks into the sky, armies of business men marching through the streets of Manhattan and hundreds of androgynous bodies taking suicidal leaps from rooftops. Yeah-it’s really, really, excessive.

The obscenity trial is the central thread throughout the narrative, and at the center of the trial is the timeless question of censorship. For one, literary interpretation is at the hands of the readers own imagination-there exists no singularly correct understanding of any work of art (poetry, film, striptease, and so on)-and to restrict the personal expression of the author is to restrict the freedoms of the consumer of that art. And that’s what makes the animation so unbearable: by providing a direct visual interpretation of Ginsberg’s poem, the directors have inadvertently contradicted a central theme of the film.

‘Howl’ is a mixed blessing. James Franco killed it as Ginsberg (is this really that same person from ‘Spider-Man’?). It’s well worth it just to see his best performance yet, and if you have to, just close your eyes during the animation and listen to his voice with it’s flawless New York accent.

It’s like seeing ‘Swordfish’ just for the brief Halle Berry boob-shot. Well worth the price of admission.