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‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ Review: Jennifer Lopez Provides Welcome Escape From Grim World of Argentine Prisoners
Bill Condon offers a fresh take on Kander and Ebb's 1992 musical, casting Diego Luna and newcomer Tonatiuh as men who bond in an Argentine jail cell.
That’s a phenomenon that both drives and describes the allure of “Kiss,” in which head-in-the-clouds Molina ( Tonatiuh), a sex offender assigned to the same cell as the activist Valentín (Diego Luna), spins tales inspired by classic Hollywood movies to ease their time behind bars. Condon, who also adapted “Chicago” for the screen, seems relatively restrained here, switching back and forth between the grubby reality of incarceration and Molina’s fanciful digressions (creatively translating “Dear One,” originally sung between the two prisoners and the women waiting for them on the outside, into an acoustic guitar ballad, “Querido”). In those cases, the film’s songs serve as a coping mechanism for Molina and Valentín, who imagine themselves in place of the male leads: Now clean-shaven, Luna doubles as Lopez’s love interest (who looks William Holden suave), while Tonatiuh stands off to the side, giving Cary Grant realness as he admires them both.
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