Saturday at the Movies

On Saturday morning we were trying to decide on something to do while our cleaning lady was at the apartment.  At breakfast Alejandro was looking at the listings at the nearby movie theater.  The films that I have been waiting for... "Nuremburg", "Hamnet" and the remake of "Wuthering Heights"... have still not premiered in Mexico.  About the only movie playing that was not a cartoon, action movie or horror movie at that hour was a film called "Song Sung Blue".

(image taken from the internet)

The film, based on a true story, is about a husband-wife team who perform in a local Neil Diamond tribute band.  It really didn't sound that interesting to me, but I do like Hugh Jackman (at least in his non-"Wolverine" roles).  So we walked over to the World Trade Center cinema for the 11:30 showing.

The movie started off as a pleasant, feel-good movie, but about half-way through, it turned into a melodramatic tear jerker... then feel-good again... and then ended as a tear jerker.  It is not an award-winning film, but it was an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

As we were headed out of the theater, we saw a movie listed for later that afternoon that sounded interesting..."The Kiss of the Spider Woman".  We bought tickets, killed some time at the Sears department store also in the World Trade Center, and then returned to the movie theater.

No, "The Kiss of the Spider Woman" is not a horror movie.  It is based on a novel written in 1976 by the Argentinian writer Manuel Puig.  In 1985, the book was made into a movie which starred William Hurt and Raul Julia.  (Hurt won an Academy Award for his performance.)  I was not aware that the work had been made into a musical which premiered on Broadway in 1993.  The music and lyrics were written by Kander and Ebb, the team who wrote "Caberet" and "Chicago".  The movie we saw is an new adaptation of the Broadway musical.

The story takes place in a prison cell during the Argentinian military dictatorship of the 1980s.  The cellmates are Valentín, a left-wing revolutionary, and Molina, an apolitical gay man who has been imprisoned for public indecency.  Molina is obsessed with campy, old movie musicals, his favorite being "The Kiss of the Spider Woman".  As a distraction from their grim surroundings, Molina narrates the plot of the film.  And so, there is a movie within a movie, alternating between the hellish reality of the prison and the glitzy fantasy of the musical.

The three lead roles are all played by Hispanic performers.  The role of Valentín is played by Diego Luna, one of Mexico's most famous actors, also well-known as his work in U.S. films. The role of Molina is played by a Mexican-American actor Tonatiuh.  Both of them have alternate roles in the movie musical sequences.  The "femme fatale" of the musical is Jennifer Lopez.  All of the actors were excellent.  I had never heard of Tonatiuh, but his performance was superb.  And even though I am not really a fan of Jennifer Lopez, her singing, dancing and acting were great.

We both thoroughly enjoyed "The Kiss of the Spider Woman".