Lopez bites into 'Kiss of the Spider Woman' redux

Singer-actor anchors the musical about the liberating power of song and dance.

- AMY NICHOLSON FILM CRITIC

JENNIFER LOPEZ and Tonatiuh in the movie "Kiss of the Spider Woman," a remake of the stage musical.

Roadside Attractions

"Kiss of the Spider Woman," a sexual and scatological dazzler about an inmate's obsession with a favorite musical, sounds like the kind of thing some folks won't watch even if they, too, were locked in a prison for years. Their loss. In the spirit of the film, I'll try to change their mind.

It's 1983 Argentina, the last days of a militarized dictatorship under which 30,000 people have been disappeared. Scraggly, severe Valentin (Diego Luna) is a political prisoner with ties to the revolutionary underground. His new cellmate is a brazen chatterbox named Molina (Tonatiuh), a gay window dresser serving an eight-year sentence for indecency in a public bathroom. They have zero shared interests. But to pass the time — and, more importantly, to get Valentin to put down his biography of Lenin and talk a little — Molina recounts the plot of a Golden Age spectacular starring the fictional movie star Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez), a red-lipped, pineapple-blond beauty whose vintage posters brighten their wretched gray walls.

"I hate musicals," Valentin complains.

"Then I pity you," Molina says breezily, charging into the first scene.