IN THE HEIGHTS
FILM OUT NOW CINEMAS
The lowdown on the adap of the Miranda musical (Lin-Manuel, not Hart),
This is a vaccine for your soul,” director Jon M. Chu promised of his ebullient, high-energy, big-screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-award winning 2007 musical about young Latino New Yorkers chasing their dreams in a tough neighbourhood.
It turns out to be more Berocca than Pfizer, a fizzy, feelgood outing of a film that’s a jolly post-pandemic pick-meup, if not a world-beater. Pumping up Miranda’s sweet and simple story of corner-shop owner Usnavi (a tender Anthony Ramos) striving to regain his dad’s hurricane-crushed bar in the Dominican Republic, Chu opens out this small stage show into a restless, neighbourhood-roaming, heatwavefuelled good time. Yet while his Step Up 2 skills turn upbeat numbers like block-dance party ‘Carnivale del Barrio’ into glossy, high-colour fiestas, the film struggles to keep the show’s original Frank Capra-ish community feel, its tight focus and warmth.
Alas, wistful newcomer Leslie Grace lacks impact as local girl-made-good
Nina, who clashes with proud cabcompany-owner dad Kevin (Jimmy Smits) over her future. That’s not just because the slightly cheesy screenplay has sandpapered any angry edges off the pair. It’s also because Chu is handier with dynamic dance numbers than these flat family scenes, or with
Nina’s halting romance with cabdispatcher Benny (a hard-working Corey Hawkins). Even when the clever camerawork has the couple dancing literally up the walls, like La La Land, things feel emotionally underpowered.
Bigger on feelings than West Side Story-style high drama, In The Heights should be all about being torn between ambition and relationships. It crackles with music-video energy and visual imagination in hairdresser Vanessa’s fabric-wrapped dreams of being a designer in ‘It Won’t Be Long Now’, thanks to sparky songstress Melissa Barrera. Her slow-burn love story with Usnavi, snagged on his dance-floor timidity but fuelled by his big-heart generosity, is deliciously engaging too.
When the film gets it right like this, or with Olga Merediz’s yearning granny, you forgive its lack of star power and the shortage of The Greatest Showman-style singable tunes. It may not have Hamilton’s grabby narrative or musical power. But the sheer exuberance of a swimming pool bursting with dancers celebrating a lottery win with propulsive rap anthem ‘96,000’ may be the uncomplicated good time your soul needs. Kate Stables