KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (no distrib): The exercise in narrative that began with Manuel Puig’s 1976 Argentinian novel has found an enduring place in popular culture, first through a 1983 theatrical version adapted by Puig himself, then Hector Babenco’s 1985 film (which was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director and won William Hurt his Oscar), than in a 1993 Broadway musical written by Terrence McNally (book), John Kander (music) and Fred Ebb (lyrics), directed by Hal Prince, which practically ran the table at that year’s Tony Awards (Prince didn’t win). Now that musical has itself been filmed by Bill Condon, who wrote the script for the film of Chicago, and wrote and directed Dreamgirls, featuring Jennifer Lopez in the role that won Chita Rivera a Tony, as well as Diego Luna and Tonatiuh. It all made for the kind of splashy premiere more often associated with Cannes or Venice than Sundance. Of course, he conflict between harsh reality and lavish fantasy is the very substance of Kiss Of the Spider Woman, and as screenwriter Condon has made some smart changes to sharpen the focus. In this version, the gay window dresser Molina (Tonatiuh) is deliberately placed in the cell of political prisoner Valentin (Luna) in order to extract information from his cellmate, and rather than Molina bonding himself to Valentin by telling him stories of various movies starring Molina’s idol Ingrid Luna (Lopez), they’re all wrapped into the single tale of “The Kiss Of the Spider Woman.” (The timeframe of the story has also been adjusted to provide for a more historically definitive ending.) The two men are excellent, and watching Lopez glide through the richly colored “Hollywood” scenes (photography by Tobias A. Schliesser) is like seeing an alternate universe in which she could have been a glamorous star of a previous movie era. Where Spider Woman falters is in trying to fit these complicated pieces together. The prison scenes are gritty but lack shape, and so much effort is required for the fantasy sequences–which are only somewhat comprehensible since Condon is telling them as a single story–that they come to feel more like stunts than exhilarating flights of fancy. Since Lopez never appears as a “real” person, the concept limits her ability to make emotional contact the way he co-leads can. (It also has to be said that although there are a few standout numbers, Spider Woman isn’t in the first rank of Kander & Ebb scores.) The poetry of the concept never quite meets the prose, and while Kiss of the Spider Woman is worthy, it doesn’t pull off the transportive experience that it’s trying to deliver.
TWO WOMEN (no distrib): Chloe Robichaud’s film, written by Catherine Leger, is a remake of a 1970 film that made a bigger splash in its native Canada than it did elsewhere. This version has been updated but tells the same basic story. Florence (Karine Gonthier-Hyndman) and Violette (Laurence Leboeuf) are neighbors in a Quebec co-op apartment complex who become friends via their misery in their long-term relationships, and particularly their starvation for sex. Florence’s partner David (Mani Soleymanlou), with whom she has a 10-year old son, throws himself into his job and the community’s eco-conscious greenhouse, so unwilling to have relations with her that he’d prefer either of them take antidepressants and be unable to perform. Meanwhile, Violette’s husband Benoit (Felix Moati) is having an affair with a co-worker. Violette, obsessing while on her maternity leave, believes at first that she hears crows, and then becomes convinced that the sounds are Florence next door having orgasms. When Florence informs her that couldn’t be the case, the women determine that there must be something they can do. Luckily, their town has a seemingly endless supply of hunky delivery, repair, and installation men who would like nothing more than to have their customers leer and throw themselves at them for casual sex. Naturally, this arrangement can go on forever, and there’s an enjoyable farcial wind-up that has some heart. The cast is likable, and the pace keeps things moving. Much of Two Women, though, feels silly and antique, a remnant of the days when “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” and “Cactus Flower” were big hits on Broadway. In 2025, Two Women feels like a movie that could have been an email.
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