Jennifer Lopez’s new film bombed in the US – here’s my verdict

Kiss of the Spider Woman is a film that couldn’t have been made without Jennifer Lopez. It’s also one that absolutely should have been made, as it was, with Tonatiuh’s star-making turn in the central role.

But this big-screen musical adaptation straddles tricky territory between the deeply political, with its setting in 1983 Argentina at the tail end of the military junta, and the lavishly fantastical with its splashy, soundstage-set musical numbers.

Initially promoted with fevered whispers of Lopez as a genuine contender in this year’s supporting actress Oscar race, those hopes abrubtly then seemed to evaporate.

This clearly wasn’t helped by the film tanking at the US box office upon release in October, scraping a measly $1.6 million (£1.2m, against a budget of at least $30m/£22.2m). Several months later and it’s quietly limped to our shores.

While the multiple studios involved seem to have given up on this messy movie musical already, it does spin a web of some intrigue.

From the songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, the musical talents behind Cabaret and Chicago – and based on Manuel Pui’s novel – Kiss of the Spider Woman’s split identity is something writer-director Bill Condon has difficulty navigating.

He chooses to separate it even more distinctly by cutting songs originally set in the prison world of the film, where trans window dresser Luis Molina (Tonatiuh) – imprisoned for public indecency with a man – is sharing a cell with political dissident Valentin Arregui Paz (Diego Luna).

To make their time more bearable while inside, Molina re-spins the story of Kiss of the Spider Woman, his favourite movie starring his favourite screen diva, Ingrid Luna (Lopez), who plays the split role of magazine editor Aurora too, and also the titular Spider Woman with her deadly kiss.

The jailbirds eventually bond over this, despite the great differences between them, and their unashamed relationship will give the film particular resonance with the queer community.

It’s long overdue seeing Lopez in a proper musical, and she acquits herself very well. However, I wasn’t blown away by the performance in the way the – ultimately in vain – early awards season buzz promised.

That’s largely not her fault either, given the nature of performing three roles rooted rather superficially, and very cinematically, in the mind of another. Lopez can’t show off emotional range in the way she could with her Oscar-snubbed turn in 2019’s Hustlers.

Despite the non-musical version of Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1985 proving an awards magnet and winning star William Hurt the best actor Oscar, Kander and Ebb’s take has struggled to achieve widespread admiration and success beyond musical theatre stage nerds so far. And I’m not sure this adaptation will be the one to guarantee that it does either.

The songs are not as memorable or character driven as Cabaret, in particular. Despite some good rapport with Molina in the cell (obviously Valentin hates musicals) and proving a decent-enough dance and song partner to Lopez, Luna seems a bit at sea too.

Separately there are things to admire: the chutzpah of its twin settings, Tonatiuh’s flair and commitment – which keeps everything moving as best it can – and just how exquisitely Condon pays homage to the big MGM movie musicals of the ’40s and ‘50s. Kiss of the Spider Woman’s song and dance routines are beautifully lit, designed and choreographed to show off both Lopez and Colleen Atwood’s extravagantly beautiful costumes.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is in UK and Irish cinemas from today.

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