West Side Story
A perfectly serviceable, but uninspired, adaptation of the broadway musical.
Maria (Rachel Zegler) is a young Puerto Rican woman, living in New York with her brother and his partner. Maria’s brother is part of a gang rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks - a Puerto Rican gang and an Irish gang - that frequently comes to blows. However, when Maria meets a member of the opposing gang, Tony (Ansel Elgort), at a dance and they fall in love, it sparks the biggest feud to date between the two gangs; a feud that builds and builds tol a fatal climax.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, West Side Story is based on the long-running stage musical (more than 60 years at this point), although he does update it slightly to reflect modern times, removing some of the more offensive parts of the original script. On top of that, he presents it in what could be described as joint language; different parts are spoken in Spanish and English, with neither subtitled. As admirable a sentiment as that may be, ultimately for the viewer it simply proves frustrating, as you get only half the story.
Across the board, however, there is a lot to like about the musical. Visually, there are some interesting shots and pieces, and Zegler is fantastic as Maria; both from a singing and an acting perspective. The real standout, however, is Mike Faist as Riff, who is endlessly watchable in this movie. On the other hand, Ansel Elgort fails to really shine, particularly from a singing perspective, and can’t quite match the talent on display in other quarters of this piece.
The primary issue with this film is fundamentally its reason for being. Much like Matrix Resurrections, this movie feels plucked from a time long ago, where we are expected to be wowed by visuals, performances and spectacle that has long fallen below the norm for viewers today. This is a beautiful, hazy movie, but it’s presented so straightforward and so much like the stage musical visually that there hardly seems any reason for its being. Particularly when compared to the scope and scale of something like the recent Les Miserables, or the visual flair of In The Heights, the movie utterly fails to define its existence. Hell, even Cats took a swing for the fences; with West Side Story Spielberg plays it too safe.
