{"id":401776,"date":"2026-04-16T15:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/401776\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:15:07","slug":"jennifer-lopez-brings-the-house-down-but-its-not-quite-enough-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/401776\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Lopez brings the house down. But it\u2019s not quite enough \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kiss of the Spider Woman <\/p>\n

\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 \ue9d7 \ue9d7 <\/p>\n

Director: Bill Condon<\/p>\n

Cert: 15A<\/p>\n

Starring: Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, Jennifer Lopez, Bruno Bichir, Josefina Scaglione, Aline Mayagoitia<\/p>\n

Running Time: 2 hrs 8 mins<\/p>\n

Where has this been hiding? John Kander and Fred Ebb\u2019s Kiss of the Spider Woman, a modest stage hit in the early 1990s, is allegedly adapted from Manuel Puig\u2019s 1976 novel<\/a> of the same name, but most musical fans thought first of the 1985 film<\/a> version for which William Hurt won his only Oscar. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Jennifer Lopez on fame: \u2018I think one of the secrets about me is that I don\u2019t ever think I have it really figured out\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The used grounds are now dumped back in the filter and the boiling water flushed through to make the weakest brew yet.<\/p>\n

This is a serious topic. During the later years of the Argentinian<\/a> dictatorship, one Luis Molina (the enthusiastic Tonatiuh), a window-dresser who identifies as female, is imprisoned for \u201cpublic indecency\u201d, with a dour political prisoner named Valentin (Diego Luna) as unhappy cellmate. (It says something about how attitudes have changed that, in the book and earlier film, the sympathetic Molina was convicted for \u201ccorruption of a minor\u201d.)<\/p>\n

In truth, the journeys travelled were never sketched with much subtlety. Molina, from a reasonably comfortable background, is too busy having fun to care about the downtrodden. Valentin, raised in less plentiful circumstances, is too committed to the cause to appreciate sensual pleasures. \u201cWhat are you reading?\u201d the former asks. \u201cA biography of Lenin!\u201d his roomy scowls back.<\/p>\n

To an initially unreceptive audience, Molina attempts to lighten the mood by talking the joyless Marxist through a favourite movie. It is an absurdly extravagant society musical called, yes, Kiss of the Spider Woman. Who better to play Ingrid Luna, its beautiful star in fantasy sequences, than the always welcome Jennifer Lopez?<\/p>\n

As Valentin lets down his emotional guard, Molina wakes up to political realities. All very neat. All a little too neat. Still, musical theatre often profits \u2013 no, not always \u2013 from such broadly drawn dynamics. J-Lo makes the best of glamorous society scenes and later dark fantasies involving the titular semi-arachnid temptress. <\/p>\n

Sadly, the rest of the production feels underpowered and poorly thought through. The supposedly wretched cell has the look of a mildly grubby student flat from the 1980s. The musical sequences, staged narrowly, have more the feel of dinner theatre than of translated Broadway grandeur.<\/p>\n

And the songs? Nobody will confuse any of them with the best from the same team\u2019s Cabaret and Chicago. The film exists to give Lopez an opportunity to bring the house down. She does that, but it\u2019s not quite enough. <\/p>\n

In cinemas from Friday, April 17th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiss of the Spider Woman \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 \ue9d7 \ue9d7 Director: Bill Condon Cert: 15A Starring: Diego Luna,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,6196,177217,270],"class_list":["post-401776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jennifer-lopez","tag-john-hurt","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}