West Side Story: Film Review
I love me a musical and have to admit this year’s movie musical offerings have largely been disappointing. Although I had some issues with it, I’m pleased to say that Steven Spielberg brings us one of 2021’s best musicals with his version of West Side Story.
For those of you familiar with the stage show (which was inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) or the original 1961 movie, you’ll know what to expect – the film tells the story of two rival gangs in New York; the Jets (who are white) and the Sharks (who are Puerto Rican). Despite being from warring groups, Maria (Rachel Zegler) falls in love with Tony (Ansel Elgort) and chaos ensues.
Spielberg has always dreamed of making an old-fashioned, classic movie musical and he has knocked it out of the park on his first go. You’d never know that it was his first time because the musical numbers are so expertly shot. The camera work helps you really appreciate the choreography – which is new (except those classic finger clicks!) but is in the same vein as the original – and how talented these musical theatre pros really are. The sequence for America has been completely reimagined and it is absolutely fantastic. It sounds like hyperbole but it is honestly one of the best musical numbers I’ve seen in recent memory and I had tears in my eyes because it brought me so much joy.
Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner have made a number of changes for their film, such as swapping the order of the songs, recontextualising them, changing the setting, who sings them etc, while Tony has a new backstory. They’ve also made huge improvements in terms of diversity, inclusion and representation to right the wrongs of the earlier film. All of the Puerto Rican cast are portrayed by Latinx actors; there is a new Black character; the Puerto Ricans speak interchangeably in Spanish and English and the Spanish isn’t subtitled (trust me, you’ll follow it just fine), and the drugstore owner Doc, Tony’s mentor, is now Valentina, who is played by Rita Moreno, who won an Oscar for playing Anita in the 1961 film.
That sounds like a lot of changes but I expected and wanted more. I went in hoping for a radically different take but it feels so old-fashioned still and is perhaps too reverential to what came before. Despite the tweaks, it still feels very faithful and similar to the original and the story feels rather dated – two people falling in love forever after a brief encounter? Please! I thought we were past that unrealistic notion. I think that’s perhaps why I didn’t care for the central romance.
West Side Story is ultimately a tale of two halves for me. I loved the musical numbers (I Feel Pretty and Gee, Officer Krupke were also excellent) and how gorgeous the film looked in the first half but I really disliked the story from the rumble onwards. The final act is so slow and lacks the earlier momentum and I just couldn’t root for Tony and Maria because I was not OK with the plot. You can do better Maria!
Elgort is arguably the biggest name in the young cast and is surprisingly the weakest link in comparison to the newcomers. He sticks out like a sore thumb alongside his Jets pals and I just didn’t believe his performance. His singing was lovely but he cannot emote! This is most apparent when he’s with Mike Faist as Tony’s best buddy Riff, who has this reckless “no f**ks given” energy and is exciting to watch.
In general, the newcomers were the most impressive and I hope this film makes them all stars. Zegler, in her movie debut, captures the innocence of Maria and has such a gorgeous voice. Ariana DeBose is a terrific singer and dancer who kills it during the America sequence. Her Anita has a fabulous no-nonsense attitude and a lot of emotional work to do at the end. Her onscreen love interest David Alvarez also brought his A-game as Bernardo, he seemed so natural and effortless.
Admittedly, a lot of my issues with this film stem from the source material and are almost the same as the problems I had with the 1961 movie. I just thought Spielberg would give us more of a revisionist take and it felt odd to me that a new film would feel so old-fashioned and dated. The musical numbers and cast are phenomenal though.
In cinemas Friday 10th December