‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ review: An uneven adaptation bolstered by soulful performances
Despite the great performances from Diego Luna and newcomer Tonatiuh, the musical remake of Kiss of the Spider Woman is caught between being a gritty prison drama and a glitzy musical.
Héctor Babenco’s searing adaptation of the 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman doesn’t quite have the same cultural cache today as it did upon its release in 1985, as the film is best remembered for winning the late William Hurt a deserved Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’. The film’s depiction of LGBTQ+ characters, while groundbreaking 40 years ago, may seem rather tame today, but it did have a strong enough fanbase to inspire a 1992 stage musical that became a sensation in its own right, and so Bill Condon’s new version falls into the same category as 2007’s Hairspray and 2005’s The Producers; it’s a muscle adaptation that will be judged as a remake.
The story is set in Argentina in 1983, where political tensions have resulted in an influx of political prisoners who are held in grossly inhumane conditions. The trans woman Luis Molina, played by Tonatiuh, is convicted of sexual indecency simply for existing and is placed in a cell alongside the political prisoner Valentin Arregui, played by Diego Luna, who was found guilty of trying to initiate a revolutionary movement. Both characters cling to their health amidst physical sickness and mental degradation, but Luis is able to bring hope to her new companion through her description and reenactment of Kiss of the Spider Woman, a film starring her idol, Ingrid Luna, played by Jennifer Lopez.
What was most memorable about Babencio’s film was that it was able to retain an intimate, claustrophobic setting while still being inherently cinematic. Chamberpieces can often feel too staged for the big screen, but there was a degree of intimacy in the performances by Hurt and Raul Julia that couldn’t have been captured in front of a live audience, and strangely enough, Kiss of the Spider Woman is able to find a similar degree of authenticity because it is not a traditional musical. The characters don’t spontaneously burst into song, as the only musical components are contained in the cutaways of the film-within-a-film. They’re effective enough that the film actually begins to drag when it switches back to reality, as it’s not willing to go far in its depiction of the true brutality of prison life.
Director Bill Condon has a fairly hit-and-miss track record, as he is responsible for both masterpieces, such as Gods and Monsters, and disasters, such as the final two Twilight films, but he does have extensive experience translating musicals to the big screen and understands the two forms better than most of his peers. Even if the film-within-a-film of Kiss of the Spider Woman is schmaltzy and intentionally cheesy, it says something profound about the way that Luis understands the world, and has augmented her memories so that her favourite film is a work of self-expression. The production design, costuming, and makeup all have the flamboyance of a stage show, but the performances aren’t so broad that they can resonate with those in the back row, and when compared to a CGI monstrosity like Wicked, Condon’s practical vision is infinitely superior.
The issues with the film emerge when it spans beyond the confines of the in-universe performances, as there’s little urgency to either of the characters’ plights. Not enough details are revealed about Luis’ life to indicate what it was like for her to live under the domain of an ignorant regime, and Tonatiuh’s acting skills aren’t on the same level as his singing abilities, whereas, conversely, Luna’s performance is so raw and gritty that he reveals the plasticity of Condon’s set-up.
This level of intensity worked for Julia within the original because the rest of the film was fairly grounded, but Condon clearly has less interest in exploring the sociopolitical makeup of Brazil in the 1980s. When considering how wonderfully this era has been depicted in recent films like I’m Still Here and The Secret Agent, it does feel like Kiss of the Spider Woman could have benefited from the involvement of more Brazilian crew members.
Lopez’s performance is what the marketing campaign for the film hinged on, but her involvement is by far the most distracting component. Even a well-known actor like Luna is able to disappear into an original character, but Lopez is so clearly channelling the Golden Age Hollywood stars she admires that her performance can’t help but feel derivative. The film-within-a-film requires her to play the two roles of the protagonist Aurora and the villainous Spider Woman, but they’re pitched at a similarly exaggerated tone, making both stick out rather sorely.
Kiss of a Spider Woman does show remarkable inventiveness for an independent musical, but the budgetary restraints do become evident in its look. As much as Condon seems to be channeling the style of Bob Fosse, with specific visual allusions to Cabaret, there’s a digital shine that makes the film feel a bit too polished, which begins to seriously drag towards its ending, in which the musical numbers become less frequent, but the chemistry between Tonatiuh and Luna is strong enough to ensure that the emotional conclusion still packs an emotional wallop. Kiss of the Spider Woman may have been best left to the stage, but Condon’s direction puts the film in a class above most contemporary Broadway adaptations.
