Entertainment
Jennifer Lopez Is Perfectly Cast as a Big-Screen Diva in ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’
The newest iteration of the novel turned 1985 film turned Broadway musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman is set in an Argentinian prison in 1981 during the country’s military dictatorship. Stuck in a cell together are Molina (Tonatiuh), a gay man who is serving time for (illegal) “homosexual activity,” and the newly arrived Valentín, a political activist who’s been fighting the regime.
To distract from their grim reality, Molina recounts his favorite movie, which stars the iconic Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez). His retelling is so vivid, Luna seems to appear before their very eyes in elaborate, movie-within-a-movie musical numbers.
J.Lo, with her incomparable star power, is perfectly cast as the legendary big-screen diva, but the luminous Tonatiuh steals the show as the flamboyant but vulnerable Molina, who slowly awakens to the political implications of his plight.
The amazing performances and the film’s story — with its message that is so powerful it keeps being retold for good reason — make this a Kiss worth embracing.
