Kiss of the Spider Woman

The 1985 film with William Hurt and Raul Julia was a more straightfoward adaptation of the original novel. 40 years later, director Bill Condon is a bit more ambitious in adapting the 90s Broadway musical with Diego Luna as political prisoner Valentin Arregui and Tonatiuh as his new cellmate Luis Molina, a gay window dresser arrested for public indecency.

An unlikely friendship in the dreary Argentinian prison develops between the two as Molina shares the storyline of their favorite movie, a bawdy musical which we will see disconnected sequences from featuring Jennifer Lopez in dual roles and which Valentin and Molina quickly take over the other main roles. In terms of the movie within the movie, Condon goes big and hard for the pageantry and musical numbers which notably creates a bit of a whiplash every time the audience is jerked back into harsh reality.

While offering a nice message about how the fantasy of a movie can offer escape, and create a bond of friendship, even in the harshest surroundings, I think the film loses itself along the way before notably making changes to the stage musical's ending. The sequences that work, work well. Those that don't, however, merely drag out the 128-minute running-time beyond my interest in the proceedings.

Playing a fan's idealized version of a character in a film, Lopez (who isn't asked to emote more than you would in an old B-movie) is nonetheless responsible for most of the film's best scenes. However, since the emotional core takes place not in the fantasy but the bleak reality, a bit too much of the spotlight seems to be cast in the wrong direction.

Given the titular character isn't introduced until 90 minutes or so into the film, making it a bit more of a struggle to ties the two stories together, perhaps it's not surprising the narrative feels disjointed, off-putting, and even perhaps confused at what story Conden ultimately wants to tell. While buoyant and gay, the big musical numbers lack a standout song and aren't memorable enough to cover the film's flaws or its inability to exploit the emotional events happening inside the dingy cell for any emotional payoff.

• Title: Kiss of the Spider Woman
• IMDb: link