KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, and Bruno Bichir
Director: Bill Condon
AMARÚ
Jennifer Lopez is perfectly fine in Kiss of the Spider Woman, but she primarily is the vehicle that drives forward the burgeoning relationship between Diego Luna’s Valentin and Tonatiuh’s Molina. The two of them are phenomenal as Argentine political prisoners; with Luna channeling what Andor might have been if given the chance at love, and Tonatiuh grabbing the chance to become an absolute star. Using Lopez’s scenes as representation of the cinema’s power to change, influence, and save was a nice device to push the leads, but outside of that, Spider Woman is just a fine, everyday musical.
QUENTIN
I typically don’t love musicals, mostly for pacing reasons, but Kiss of the Spider Woman has the right idea when it comes to structure. By using a setup similar to The Princess Bride (a person telling another person a story), the song-and-dance numbers aren’t rehashing a scene that just happened like in most musicals. However, I was more engaged by the reality-set relationship between Valentin (a great Diego Luna) and Molina (an even better Tonatiuh) than the fantasy-set musical sequences that often killed the momentum of the characters’ evolving dynamic. Granted, even as they became tiresome, I appreciated the Old Hollywood stylings of the musical moments.
