Anchored in the relationship that develops between two cellmates imprisoned under the Argentine military dictatorship, this incarnation of Kiss of The Spider Woman is based on the 1993 John Kander and Fred Ebb musical version of Manuel Puig’s novel and the 1985 William Hurt Oscar-winner. It transports the action to 1983, towards the end of the Dirty War, mixing golden age Hollywood musical numbers with the stark reality of prison life, and while director Bill Condon is adept when it comes to staging all-singing, all-dancing escapism, he proves less successful at nailing the grimmer tone behind bars.
The film sees revolutionary Valentín Arregui (Diego Luna) incarcerated for his political activism, while his recently arrived gay cellmate Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) has been jailed for public indecency. The two are forced to share a cell by the prison governor (Bruno Bichir), who is pressuring Molina to extract information from Arregui that they’ve been unable to get any other way.
The activist’s gruff approach to prison life is the polar opposite to the exuberant window dresser Molina, who wards off the horrors of the jail by retreating into the fantasy world of cinema with his screen idol Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez).
As Molina begins recounting the plot of his favourite movie – Kiss of The Spider Woman – the action is whisked to a film-within-a-film structure. There, he imagines himself in the role of the closeted gay assistant to Luna’s magazine editor character Aurora, while casting Arregui as her love interest Armando. Lopez gets to pull double diva duty as the mythical femme fatale-like Spider Woman, who threatens to steal away Armando and Aurora’s happiness with her kiss.
Luna is described as "the climax of your Technicolor dreams" and these segments unfold as big, blousy musical numbers complete with exquisite costumes and razzle-dazzle in which Lopez struts her stuff. Fans of the likes of Chicago (which Condon also wrote the screenplay for) will lap up these highly polished and choreographed set pieces.
Although Lopez is the main attraction, Tonatiuh also gets plenty of room to showcase his talents. Diego Luna, by comparison, while sincere, doesn’t have either the same vocal prowess or the dancing verve as his counterparts, although you can feel the effort he is putting in to try to match them..
View Green Video on the source websiteBack in the real world, while Arregui initially pours scorn on Molina’s imaginings, he soon comes to see the tale as a welcome diversion from the brutal treatment of the guards, who are employing every trick in the book to make him talk.
Condon’s depiction of the prison, however, lacks grit, meaning that there’s not enough contrast between it and Molina’s fictional conjurings. Everything from the lighting to the set dressing feels stagey. The idea of escapism only partially works with reality as soft at the edges as this.
Tonatiuh does the bulk of the emotional leg work, highlighting the tensions within Molina’s life. He articulates the fact that his character isn’t just imprisoned by the walls of the jail but by a wider regime that views his gender fluidity as abhorrent. One of the film’s stronger points is that it demonstrates that his personal determination to be himself in the face of oppression is every bit as courageous as Arregui’s political activism.
Luna has a much trickier job on his hands, not least because the characterisation of Arregui is so macho. The dialogue between the cellmates also has a stilted quality, meaning the shifting nature of their relationship feels more like ticking off plot points than charting a natural arc. No matter how complex the web, Condon’s uneven Spider Woman lacks bite.
Kiss of The Spider Woman is released in UK cinemas on Friday 17 April.
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