Review: West Side Story

A musical, somewhat racial version of “Romeo and Juliet” with white Tony (Ansel Elgort, wooden) and Puerto Rican Maria (Rachel Zegler, luminous) falling in love, whilst the rival gangs they’re connected to – The Sharks and Jets are involved in a fierce rivalry. Ariana DeBose and David Alvarez play Anita and her Shark leader beau Bernardo, the latter being Maria’s brother. Playing the Mercutio of the piece (re-named Riff) is Mike Faist, whilst Rita Moreno plays Valentina, a new character who is the widow of drug store owner Doc (and thus essentially serves the same function), a friend of the Jets.

 

As you probably know, I’m allergic to most musicals. I have zero interest in the original “West Side Story”, and very much prefer my Shakespeare with as little singing as possible. I only saw this 2021 Best Picture nominee because it was indeed an Oscar nominee and it comes from Steven Spielberg (“Duel”, “Jaws”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “ET: The Extra Terrestrial”, “Minority Report”), on his day the best living filmmaker. So what did I make of this? It’s well-made in pretty much every facet, young Rachel Zegler is absolutely lovely…and the film did largely nothing for me. Sorry, but gang warfare and spirit fingers just makes my brain do cartwheels. Yeah, this review will probably be useless to most of you.

 

It’s all very pretty, colourful, well-directed, well choreographed in terms of both the dancing and the cinematography by Janusz Kaminski (“Saving Private Ryan”, “Minority Report”). It just plays so weirdly for me because in spite of the technical brilliance on show throughout, I was left completely cold by it. Scripted by Tony Kushner (“Munich”, “Lincoln”) and based on the well known play, it’s got all these supposed tough guys dancing and prancing and it just didn’t work for me. No, I’m not making some homophobic remark here, the characters are presumably mostly heterosexual anyway (there’s one trans character here named ‘Anybodys’), and there’s no correlation between sexuality/gender and toughness (whatever one equates toughness with) in my view. What I’m saying is that I tend to try to believe in the worldview I’m given, and a worldview where street toughs sing and dance and prance just doesn’t work for me because that’s not something I believe would ever hold true in any kind of reality, not just this one (I’m hardly expecting a documentary here). See, that might be why I’m not a fan of musicals, because I think with musicals you aren’t going to get any kind of reality nor do fans of such things likely want it. Musicals might just be the ultimate escapism in that sense. However, with the way I’m wired I guess I can’t shut that part of my brain down and just enjoy the artistry, the exuberance, and the music. I can appreciate it somewhat from a remote distance, and if I were watching the musical on stage I likely wouldn’t have the same concerns because I understand that musical theatre is a different medium and would accept that going in. With cinema, even in a musical I like to be pulled into a worldview I can believe in for two hours even if fantastical, and with the characters who I can buy into. I found that very hard here with all the finger-snapping tough guys, who make the crew in “Grease” seem like “The Expendables” in comparison. Maybe if it were set on some alien planet I could’ve accepted it, but it’s set in New York in the 1950s and these guys are dancing and prancing prior to a rumble. That makes my brain do cartwheels of confusion before you get to the fact that they also sound like 1920s paperboys as well when they talk (Mike Faist is especially unthreatening). “The Outsiders” this ain’t, let alone “The Warriors” (and those are still pretty heavily stylised films). Perhaps my stance is hypocritical, confusing, or even nonsensical, like I said this review might be rather useless to a great many people. However, if you enjoy reading reviews that offer a different point of view, you’re certainly getting it here.

 

Truth be told, I don’t even think much of the music works entirely well here, either. Rachel Zegler has a very pretty singing voice (assuming it’s really her), but most of the Jets seem to be unable to hold a tune at all. The best-known songs still work to some extent because a great song is a great song – ‘Maria’, ‘America’ (the choreography is particularly outstanding), and of course ‘Somewhere’ being the best of the lot. I rather liked the cute apartment version of the balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet”, where the song ‘Maria’ basically serves as Romeo and Juliet’s dialogue. However, I must admit I would’ve preferred ‘Somewhere’ to be sung by the two leads as a duet. Moreno is very fine if underused in a supporting role, after having already won an Oscar for playing Anita in the 1961 film version. However, her voice is frankly not all that great (she basically speaks it), and while a classic song – the best in the musical in my view – I would’ve preferred the lead actors to sing it as a duet, like in the 1961 film version (though Zegler is a vastly superior singer to Ansel Elgort it has to be said). That said, Moreno gives the song an investment from an acting point of view that still makes it rather moving, even if I’d still prefer it sung by the leads. She probably gives the best acting performance in the film alongside Zegler. I thought it interesting that Ariana DeBose was the only one from the cast Oscar nominated – and she subsequently won. She’s perfectly OK in the role that won Moreno her Oscar back in 1961, but I honestly think Moreno and Zegler are more impressive here from an acting standpoint.

 

Well-staged, visually stunning corny nonsense. I can appreciate the artistry, but I was at arms length to the story and characters most of the time. Given its origins are in what is probably my favourite Shakespearean play, I guess we’ll just have to chalk this one up to personal taste. I don’t like spirit fingers with my Bard, I’m afraid. But you enjoy it if you want to. It’s not a bad film, just a bit curious to be making it in 2021 and it didn’t do much for me personally. It just reminded me of the very funny “SNL” parody.

 

Rating: C