One of the major box office bombs of 2025 is Bill Condon's adaptation of the "Kiss of the Spider Woman" stage musical, and it's a terrible shame. Initially, I was apprehensive about the story being turned into a splashy screen musical, only being familiar with Hector Babenco's non-musical film adaptation from 1985 that starred Raul Julia and William Hurt. However, the new approach works, specifically the way that it manages to pay homage to Hollywood's golden age, while giving the main characters some important modern updates.
Molina (Tonatiuh), a queer window dresser, and Arregui (Diego Luna), a studious revolutionary, are forced to share a cell during their incarceration by the Argentinian military dictatorship in the late 70s. Initially, Arregui wants nothing to do with the "frivolous" Molina, who is obsessed with movies and fashion. However, Molina is persistently friendly, and passes the time by telling Arregui about his favorite actress, Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez), and the plot of his favorite Luna musical, "The Kiss of the Spider Woman." As their time in prison becomes more harrowing, Molina and Arregui grow closer, though all is not what it seems.
It's interesting that "Kiss of the Spider Woman" was pushed so heavily as a Jennifer Lopez vehicle when she has the least interesting role in the movie. Sure, she's at the center of the gorgeous song and dance numbers that feature in Molina's fantasies, and is perfectly lovely to watch as both the glamorous Hollywood star and the looming spectre of death in her Spider Woman guise. However, she's a cipher rather than an actual character. The real lead of the picture is Tonatiuh, whose Molina is not explicitly said to be a transwoman or nonbinary in this version of the story (so I'm using male pronouns), but is given much more narrative space to express himself in ways that strongly suggest that this may be the case. I don't think that Tonatiuh is as good an actor as William Hurt, but there's a welcome authenticity to the performance that is undeniable. Arregui and Molina's dynamic is also more romantic, because it's not the '80s anymore.
Tonatiuh's character is expanded through the fantasy sequences, which are his escape from the harsh reality of the prison. This is the biggest improvement on the previous screen version, where the "Kiss of the Spider Woman" movie within a movie was a Nazi propaganda/romantic melodrama pastiche with very sinister overtones. In the new version, "The Kiss of the Spider Woman" is a full blown Latin themed MGM musical tribute, with elaborate staging and cinematography, vibrant colors, and a far more coherent plot. Molina gives himself and Arregui roles within the movie too, so their real and fantasy selves can mirror one other throughout the story. And this works because the filmmakers were very, very careful to maintain the line of demarcation between the two halves of the film until the very end. Song numbers from the stage musical that occurred during the prison sequences were all removed, so songs only appear in the fantasies. And the more vibrant and artificial as the musical sequences are, the more starkly unpleasant the prison scenes are. Anyone going to "Kiss of the Spider Woman" for a fun romp may be in for more than they bargained for.
Like many musical adaptations, the second half slows down and gets unwieldy. It doesn't help that I don't find any of the songs memorable, and we lose Arregui for a few key scenes. This is where it probably would have helped to have a more seasoned lead, as Tonatiuh delivers moments of great vulnerability and humor, but there were aspects of Molina's character - like his fear of the Spider Woman - that didn't land for me at all. Still, witnessing the joyous finale where he gets to be himself at last, it's hard to argue that there was anyone more suitable for the role. And once you've seen "Kiss of the Spider Woman" as a musical, how could it be anything else?
Like Lars Von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark," "Kiss of the Spider Woman" functions as a metamusical, critiquing and commenting on the musical form, common movie tropes, and the function of fantasy as an escape. Add its queer hero, and themes of surviving a Totalitarian regime, and "Kiss of the Spider Woman" couldn't be more timely. The bungled release means it has an uphill battle, but I have no doubt that this one will become a classic - it's too good not to find its audience eventually.
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