*Premise spoilers*
*Note: other characters in the movie have their own view of Molina’s gender, but I’m going to use she/her pronouns. It’s definitely what she would want!*
We’re taking a break from 3Below today, because there’s a new Diego Luna project to talk about! I’ve been waiting on this one for a long time—I’m glad that it’s finally here, and that my local theater got it right away.
Amid the military dictatorship of Argentina in the 1980s, an imaginative window dresser named Molina, arrested for “public indecency,” is transferred to a political prison, where she’s placed in a cell with a revolutionary named Valentin. Immediately, Valentin is annoyed by Molina’s noise, gaiety, and non-Marxist views, but she gradually wins him over by telling him the story of her favorite old movie, which she uses to mentally escape their dangerous circumstances. Unbeknownst to Valentin, the warden put Molina there in the hope that she can learn valuable information he’s hiding. But as the days pass, Molina becomes less certain of whether she wants to succeed.
As a musical, director Bill Condon takes a similar approach to what he used in another Kander & Ebb show he adapted for the screen, Chicago. As with Chicago, the musical numbers here are primarily limited to fantasy sequences—mostly in the technicolor-soaked recreation of Molina’s movie, but there are a few that are purely in Molina’s head. Molina and Valentin still get in on the movie scenes, since Molina “casts” them both in a role for her retelling, but for the most part, the musical sequences are a vehicle for Jennifer Lopez as Ingrid Luna, the old-Hollywood actress that Molina is obsessed with. She does the lion’s share of the singing and dancing, both in the movie-within-a-movie and in the other fantasy scenes, and she doesn’t disappoint.
However, I’ll admit that, as a musical, this film falls slightly flat for me. That’s because Molina’s favorite movie isn’t very good. It’s a bit of a Drowsy Chaperone technique, since Molina knows that it’s cheesy and oversimplified but adores it anyway, only the film doesn’t fully commit to the bit. While the movie scenes don’t have a strong enough story to really keep my attention, they’re also not over-the-top enough to make it a parody. There are a few really standout musical performances here, especially Molina singing “She’s a Woman” and La Luna leading her in “Where You Are.” On the whole, though, this is a musical where the dialogue scenes captivate me a lot more than the singing and dancing.
That said, I still really liked the movie, because the dialogue scenes are so good. Tonatiuh is a fantastic Molina—fanciful, sensitive, and strong-willed. She’s abused and harassed by the guards, who view her as a homosexual man. Part of the reason she idolizes La Luna is because Molina longs to be her, and her memories of the movies help Molina maintain her spirit despite her bleak, dangerous circumstances. Tonatiuh’s acting is terrific throughout, and their singing voice is lovely.
Tonatiuah also plays wonderfully off Diego Luna’s Valentin. Much more serious than Molina, Valentin at first tries to lay down the law—no talking while he’s studying, and no talking while he’s thinking about his studies. When Molina starts telling him about the La Luna movie, Valentin declares that he hates musicals, poking fun at the movie’s plotholes and outdated gender stereotypes. Molina argues that she’ll stop telling him the story if he keeps mocking it, but Valentin starts to get drawn into the tale in spite of himself.
It’s much the same way with the dynamic between the two prisoners. Valentin doesn’t fully understand Molina—he thinks childhood trauma made her queer, and he thinks she’s demeaning herself when she talks about wanting to be a woman—but he treats her like a person, something she doesn’t get from anyone else in the prison. And both of them, somewhat in spite of themselves, begin to grow closer to one another. Valentin tries to teach Molina some of the principles of Marxism and urges her to stand for something. And although he considers his own fear and anguish to be “weakness,” he opens up to her about it, admitting that his emotions are coming out like a “leaky faucet.”
This is a really beautiful performance from Luna. Andor comparisons are understandable, especially from the Narkina 5 arc, but Valentin is a very different sort of character than Cassian. He’s alternately gruff and personable, he’s idealistic and scholarly, he’s screwed his courage to the sticking place and will suffer whatever he has to for the cause, even as that terrifies him. When he lashes out in anger at Molina, he startles himself with his actions and is ashamed as he pulls back. At his most vulnerable moments, he both seeks comfort and offers it. From start to finish, Luna and Tonatiuh are just spectacular to watch together.
Luna’s other “role,” as it were, is the part Molina assigns for Valentin in the movie she’s telling him about. In the movie-within-the-movie, he plays Armando, La Luna’s love interest in the film. This role isn’t nearly as meaty as Valentin is, but it is where Luna gets in on the musical side of things. Mostly, that means dancing in multiple scenes with Lopez, and he does get one solitary song: “An Everyday Man.” As with The Book of Life, Luna isn’t the strongest singer, but his voice is gentle and pleasant. It’s fitting for the song, which is about Armando showing La Luna’s character the simple beauty of “everyday” life in the small village where both of them were born.
Recommend?
In General – I think so. Even if I don’t think it measures up to some of the other movie musicals from recent years, I still really like this film, especially the central relationship.
Diego Luna – Yes! I love Luna’s performance as Valentin—so layered, and it’s compelling to watch his journey.
Warnings
Strong thematic elements, violence (including torture and references to rape,) brief sexual content, language (including homophobic slurs,) smoking, gross-out stuff, and disturbing images.
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