Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dance class
Cert
WEST SIDE STORY 12A ★★★★ In cinemas now
The songs may have been shuffled but the heart of the drama remains untouched in this spectacular take on the classic 1961 musical. Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story respects the original while being fresh enough to welcome newbies to the fold.
If you’re one of the latter, here’s a recap: with music from Leonard Bernstein, lyrics from the late, great Stephen Sondheim and a plot from the very late and very great William Shakespeare, West Side Story tells the tale of star-crossed lovers meeting in the slums of 1950s New York. Here, Tony
(Ansel Elgort), a former member of the all-white Jets, falls for Maria (Rachel Zegler), sister of the leader of Puerto Rican gang the Sharks.
The look of the film is old Technicolor and the exuberant musical numbers gently riff on the original’s finger-snapping, skirt-twirling routines.
The most noticeable difference is the casting.
In 1961, nobody had an issue with a browned-up star-of-the day Natalie Wood playing Maria.
Here, Zegler, who responded to an open casting call on Twitter, gives the film an authentic Latin edge as she speaks an unusually large portion of her dialogue in
unsubtitled Spanish. But the highlight is the song America, where Ariana DeBose’s Anita – Maria’s flatmate – turns the streets of Manhattan into a riot of colour and movement.
Rita Moreno, who played the original Anita, has a new role as shopkeeper Valentina and gets a chance to sing Somewhere – conceived as a touching love song for Maria and Tony – as a sad lament for lost dreams.
It’s an intriguing tweak but the romance needed all the help it could get. Zegler and the supporting cast are wonderful but Elgort is an underwhelming Tony. He can hold a tune but never convinces as a charismatic gang leader with a moody past.
The look is old Technicolor and exuberant musical numbers riff on the original