This one’s for the hopeful romantics searching for light even in the bleakest of times.
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The year is 2025 and Jennifer Lopez is living the dream playing a lead role that seems to have been tailor-made for her.
Kiss of the Spider Woman, based on the 1992 stage musical, is written and directed by Dreamgirls’ Bill Condon. Diego Luna and Tonatiuh also star alongside Lopez.
Set in the early 80s nearing the end of the Argentinian Dirty War, the film follows Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) who has been incarcerated for public indecency. He is made to share a cell with a member of the revolutionary party, Valentin Arregui (Luna). Initially annoyed by Molina’s loquaciousness and flamboyance, Valentin reluctantly agrees to listen to Molina recount the plot of his favourite musical, "The Kiss of the Spider Woman".
Molina’s favourite film is about magazine publisher Aurora (Lopez), her assistant Kendall, and photographer Armando. Toniatiuh and Luna inhabit the roles of Kendall and Armando respectively.
Aurora and Armando fall in love along the way but not without hurdles. The Spider Woman (also played by Lopez) is the protector of the village they’re in. In return, a native woman’s lover is sacrificed for her service. Aurora attempts to send Armando away when she realises his life is threatened. Kendall sacrifices himself to the Spider Woman instead, as a means to help the couple stay together after having previously betray them.
As Molina’s story is gradually being told, we learn that he was intentionally placed in the cell to spy on Valentin for information on his group. This mirrors his in-universe film counterpart Kendall as a double-crosser.
The film transforms into a technicolour wonder as Molina goes into storyteller mode, a stark contrast to the bleak darkness of the prison cell that holds the men. Every musical number dazzles from Lopez’s charismatic energy and Colleen Atwood’s fabulous costumes, making the film an absolute spectacle to behold. Condon, who's worked on his fair share of movie musicals, makes the best of his experience with an expert maneuver of melding and keeping both "worlds" apart.
The Kiss of the Spider Woman is a beautiful escape from reality through the means of storytelling––a brief reprise from a wretched life. This is something we can all relate to and could use a little more of when the unpleasantries of life get in the way. No harm in dreaming of a deliciously grand alternate reality!
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