It sounds complicated, but in a film adaptation based on a 1992 Tony Award winning stage musical, which is based on a 1976 novel, and was previously adapted into a film in 1985, Bill Condon directs his take on the dramatic thriller musical set in 1980s Argentina, during the dictatorship in the time of the Dirty War. The film is Kiss of the Spider Woman, and follows Valentin, a political prisoner who gets a new cellmate, Luis, a gay window dresser who was arrested for public indecency. To escape the weary prison and their dreadful world, at least mentally, before bed, Luis tells Valentin the story of his favourite old Hollywood film, Kiss of the Spider Woman. As the film we watch blends the dark grime of the prison with the technicolour world Luis is describing, it unfortunately fails at ever saying much about the themes it presents, dragging along with only the two main performances to keep us watching.

When Luis (Tonatiuh) is arrested for public indecency, he is placed in a cell with Valentin (Diego Luna), a political prisoner who holds secrets that the dictatorship wants. To try to cope with the woes of the dreary prison and daily torture to get Valentin to reveal what he knows, Luis tells Valentin the story of his favourite old Hollywood film, Kiss of the Spider Woman, starring his favourite actress Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez) . Inserting himself and Valentin into the film, we watch as our own film switches back and forth between the two men struggling in the prison and their nightly escape to the technicolour world of old Hollywood. As the film’s story begins to heavily parallel the world Luis and Valentin live in, the two form a new bond, questioning what will come if one is released.

With Jennifer Lopez as the big name that will pull most North America viewers to watch the film, it is first important to celebrate how the script and overall direction keep her importance as the titular character, the Spider Woman in the film, without making her the one you leave the film thinking of. She overall gives a good performance, but there is so much room for Tonatiuh and Luna to give their all, becoming the standouts of the film supported by Lopez, which feels true to the story and right for what they were trying to say.

In terms of the film trying to say something, it succeeds in illustrating the power of cinema and art in hard times. The strength that lies in a shared story and to live in a world different from your own, even just for a few moments. How these stories can help us to realize truths about ourselves and our relationships in the world we inhabit, and how cinema and stories are a language that we can all communicate through and connect over.

Aside from doing this really well, I feel like in the end the film fails in saying anything else important about some of the other themes it presents. Topics like homosexuality under a dictatorship, gender identity, and the revolution itself. It seems like many of these themes are placed in the film with the intention of having something to say or challenge, and by the end become more muted under some of the dramatic elements the film is trying to end with. There are some cool parallels between the real world and the Hollywood film world that make it clear the film has a vision to present Luis’ gender, sexuality, and part in the revolution, but it never comes together, feeling like something major was forgotten about in the final moments.

Despite the script not really pulling all it wants to say together, and the script often feeling very obviously like it is based on a script written for the stage, Tonatiuh shines in the film, becoming the beating heart that drags the slowly paced script along. His passion is apparent, and the light he brings to the character and to the prison makes the world they are creating feel lived in, and makes Luis feel whole. Diego Luna is also stellar as Valentin, naturally opening him up from the withdrawn political prisoner to the man we come to love by the end of the film. Jennifer Lopez is good, but again she leaves space for the men to shine, supporting their story even thought she plays the titular character.

The film also cannot be talked about without discussing its songs, which unfortunately are as unforgettable as those in Emilia Perez, though they are better songs overall. Written originally for the stage musical, maybe they simply are better when performed live, but ask me to hum a tune from any single one of them and my brain is empty.

Along with the songs come the technicolour world of the old Hollywood film that Ingrid Luna stars in. The contrast between the dark prison and the colours of the film world are fun, but overall they way the Hollywood scenes are captured they still feel like recreations of films of this time. Like fakes rather than something that actually cares to understand the older technology that was used or to focus on specifics to make it look like anything but a wash of colour. Even the Hollywood aspect in general falls flat of ever achieving anything, as the themes it is being used to represent and the parallels it is drawing with the real world end up being under-utilized by the end, making me wonder what it was all for, and if the film would have felt any different had this whole part been cut out.

While Bill Condon’s 2025 adaptation of the stage musical of the novel Kiss of the Spider Woman fails to really say anything other than, “stories are powerful tools in hard times”, it does leave me curious to check out the previous editions. Was Condon’s adaptation simply missing something to keep the pace moving forward and to tie all the strings together at the end, or is this story simply a flawed one, or at least one that I am unable to appreciate. Tonatiuh and Diego Luna are the shining forces keeping the film watchable until the end, but between unremarkable musical numbers and too many themes that ultimately go nowhere, it does not stand out as being something other than fine to watch.

Kiss of the Spider Woman will be released in theatres in Canada on October 17. Image courtesy of Mongrel Media.