Yahoo Movies Jennifer Lopez tearful as new musical receives standing ovation at Sundance
The singer told the crowds at Sundance Film Festival that she’s been 'waiting for this moment' after her new film received a hugely positive response.
Jennifer Lopez's new film Kiss of the Spider Woman has received a positive response at Sundance Film Festival, with the singer and her co-stars being given a standing ovation.
The movie adapts the Broadway musical which swept the Tony Awards in 1993, as well as the 1985 Oscar-winning movie of the same name. Lopez takes on the role of Aurora, a role that was made famous by Chita Rivera in the aforementioned stage production.
Kiss of the Spider Woman follows imprisoned revolutionary Valentin Arregui (Diego Luna) and his new cellmate Luis Molina (Tonatiuh), who is obsessed with movies, celebrities and Hollywood glamour. In jail during the dictatorship in Argentina, Molina tells Valentin of his favourite movie musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman, which stars his favourite diva Ingrid Luna (Lopez, who also plays Aurora and the Spider Woman).
The singer stepped out onto the red carpet at the prestigious film festival alongside Tonatiuh and director Bill Condon, with Lopez dazzling in a spiderweb gown. During the screening Sundance audiences were said to have broken into spontaneous applause, particularly for Lopez's song and dance numbers. The reaction to the movie matches the positive critic response that Kiss of the Spider Woman received.
Lopez was said to have grown teary-eyed when the film was received so well and got a standing ovation, and she told the crowd jubilantly: "I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life."
Lopez added that she has been a fan of musicals ever since she first remembers watching West Side Story as a kid, so to be able to finally star in a musical movie has been a dream come true.
The Hollywood Reporter critic David Rooney wrote that Lopez's performance is "one of the best roles of her career", saying: "She looks sensational in Colleen Atwood’s stunning costumes, and the verve she brings to her songs lifts the entire movie. It’s a part that calls for a larger-than-life presence, and Lopez supplies it."
Rooney added that while the movie feels "uneven" it shines best when it focuses on the movie within the movie: "He makes those campy escapist interludes the throbbing heart of the film, bursting with Technicolor vitality and splashy production numbers and big, bold feelings. It also allows the writer-director to mirror the plotlines between reality and fantasy more closely, if at times a tad forcibly."
The critic also said: "The ideally cast Lopez is the movie’s highlight, perhaps inevitably with such a scene-stealing role."
Deadline's Pete Hammond had a lot of kind things to say about the film, writing: "It’s nice to report that the stunning new film adaptation of their 1993 Tony-winning musical Kiss of the Spider Woman joins Cabaret and Chicago as a master class in how to find the cinematic soul of a Broadway musical while still doing it justice on screen 30 years later — and in a very different time culturally."
The critic had high praise for Lopez, saying she delivers the "whole package — singing, dancing, acting" and thrives because "she has never gotten the opportunity to show on screen in this way."
Hammon wrote: "Lopez has always been underrated for her chops as a dramatic actress, but fans of the period and the films emulated here will see favourable comparisons with Columbia musical icon Rita Hayworth, MGM diva Cyd Charisse, Ava Gardner, even Marilyn Monroe in the delicious “Gimme Love” number."
Variety's Peter Deburge wrote that while Lopez was good it is Tonatiuh who is the breakout: "Each time Kiss cuts away from the cold gray walls of the cell, it calls for a star who can vamp her way through 1960s-style song-and-dance numbers, the way Chita Rivera did onstage. Here we get no less a diva than Lopez smoldering in a three-pronged role, which should draw crowds who might not otherwise have a taste for musicals.
"And yet, it’s relative newcomer Tonatiuh who walks away with the show, finding both strength and vulnerability in a character who seems less frivolous with each passing scene."
Kiss of the Spider Woman was originally written by Manuel Puig and was adapted into a movie in 1985, which starred William Hurt and Raul Julia as Molina and Valentin respectively. The movie earned Hurt an Oscar for Best Actor, and was nominated in several categories.
Kiss of the Spider Woman has not yet got an official release date.
