“Kiss of the Spider Woman” began life as a 1976 novel by author Manuel Puig, who was interested in exploring the pains of reality involving political torment and the liberation of the mind as fantasy takes hold. It was turned into a 1985 film, directed by Hector Babenco, with the little feature snowballing into an art-house hit, even scoring four Academy Award nominations and an Oscar win for co-star William Hurt. In 1992, the material was reworked into a musical from John Kander and Fred Ebb, which went on to collect multiple Tony Awards, including Best Musical of the Year. That stage endeavor serves as the inspiration for a new “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” with writer/director Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls,” 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast”) attempting to bring the sharp divide between grime and glamour to the big screen, putting his faith in Jennifer Lopez to carry most of the effort’s song and dance. Technical credits are impressive, and the story finds moments of intimacy, but the production also battles a level of theatricality that doesn’t translate to riveting cinema, making the offering feel sluggish and flattened. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
BRIAN ORNDORF 
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