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El Cantante - Review
Rated: R Distributor: Picturehouse Entertainment Release Date: 2007-08-03 Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony
Directed by Leon Ichaso
Produced by Julio Caro, Simon Fields, Jennifer Lopez and David Maldonado
Written by Leon Ichaso, David Darmstaeder and Todd Anthony Bello
Visit the movie's Official Site!
The movie pretends to be the story of famed Salsa singer Hector Lavoe, as told from the perspective of his longtime wife Puchi. Even though putting spouses together in movies almost always results in cinematic disaster, El Cantante does it anyway by casting real life husband and wife Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez as Hector and Puchi. I say the movie pretends to be told from the perspective of Puchi, because it only seems to stick to this premise when convenient. The movie pauses frequently to let Lopez as Puchi, in some sort of bizarre, mock interview introduce each scene. This gives Lopez a chance to showcase her complete lack of acting talent. The movie’s awful mock interviews with her play out like someone’s final exam in acting class, and JLo looks like she’s practicing to play the character in front of a mirror. Lopez actually seems to become a worse actress with each picture, and her work in El Cantante represents a new low. But the really annoying thing about all the screen time she’s given to smoke and stare at the camera is that it’s all for nothing since once the scene she’s introducing starts rolling the camera follows Hector everywhere, with or without Puchi. There’s no real attempt to tell the story from her perspective, because that sort of complexity is light-years beyond this script’s grasp. If there were a bright spot in the film, it might have been Marc Anthony as Hector Lavoe. He certainly looks convincing, drugging and whoring, and shrugging his way through the picture. Unfortunately El Cantante never lets us get to know his character. The movie skips through his life with no real rhyme or reason. It’s like watching the Hector Lavoe story on fast forward, were the remote control being held by a blindfolded mental patient who randomly switches to slow motion based upon a random bubbling sensation in his bowels. There’s no point to any of it, and the movie skips through Hector’s life without letting us know who he is or why he’s important. The film can’t even properly present his music, the man never sings an entire song and if there was any sort of process to coming up with his sound it’s ignored. Lavoe simply shows up in New York and goes to work singing. Well we presume he’s singing. We don’t see much of it really, though people keep talking about how great he is and soon for no particular reason and with almost no effort on his part, he’s instantly elevated to the status of Latin god. The same is true of his relationship with Puchi, who just sort of shows up, and then they’re together. We don’t know why they’re together, there’s no attempt to figure out why Puchi sticks with him, or even to figure out what they have in common besides a mutual affection for heavy drugs. Though maybe it’s for the best. If JLo can’t handle the meager morsels El Cantante’s lousy script gives her, I shudder to think what she might have done to good material. The musician biopic craze dies right here; bury it to the left of Jennifer Lopez’s once significant career.
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Comment on “El Cantante”Note: This website is not intended for use by minors. The views expressed in this comments section are not necessarily our own. Comments that we deem to be poorly worded, off topic, or threatening will not be published. For free, uncensored discussion visit our forum.
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July 30th, 2007 at 19:36
I was afraid that this movie would not get good ratings...... Coming from a hardcore Puerto Rican, it pains me to say that J Lopez / M Anthony are not the caliber of actors to make this kind of movie. Make no bones about it.....the life of Hector Lavoe is the kind of roller coaster ride that Oscar roles are made of. Lopez / Anthony are definitely not the type of actors to deliver their roles appropriately.
Once I read that the movie was not even going to feature the original music as sung by the great Lavoe...I new it was doomed. How do you make a movie about a musician that never got national air play across the US and not introduce him to everyone by having original music? M Anthony has got to have some ego to think that people would not notice a second rate attempt to copy Lavoe tracks. He is not a great Salsa singer...just OK. OK music does not cut it. I guess Lopez forgot this IS about the music....and not the substitute!
Why not get Benecio Del Toro? This movie is not suppose to appeal to only Puerto Ricans.......it's for everyone to be introduced to an extremely significant musical artist that the majority of Americans never knew existed.
What a dissappointment,