Kiss of the Spider Woman

By Joanna Langfield

I’m not quite sure why Bill Condon’s mounting of this Kander and Ebb musical doesn’t grab us. Because the elements are all there: a sharp, poignant drama, a loving appreciation of film and its place in our lives, all brought to us on a silver platter of fine performances. So why do we leave the theater, pretty much unmoved?

Diego Luna and Tonatiuh star as political prisoners, sharing a cell for very different reasons. Valentin has been deemed a Marxist by the authoritarian government, Molina has been imprisoned, essentially, for being a homosexual. As both men suffer different kinds of abuse, they form a somewhat surprising bond, finding refuge in their friendship as they dream of escape by retelling a popular movie of the time, a hot B movie entitled Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Jennifer Lopez, appearing throughout the film as the mystical and mercurial Spider Woman, sings, dances and acts as vividly as Condon’s technicolor-ish staging lets her. We can’t fall under her spell the way the men do because we feel a distance they do not. She and the film within the film she is helping to recreate, are purposely hyper romantic. That might work well for the men who use it to fantasize a freedom, but it leaves us out in the cold.

Luna and Tonatiuh are more effective, touching the depths of their sympathetic characters as often as the film allows. Various versions of this story have been around since Argentine author Manuel Puig’s novel was published in 1976. Some even won awards. But the oddly bland veneer on this one feels so unfortunate, a missed opportunity. Now, in 2025, shouldn’t we be ready to fully address, and recognize, the realities of life under authoritarian rule?