You know, I remembered after I sent my review of Turbulence that my father reads these reviews. Oy. So in this review, I'm not going to gush about how suave, sultry, and sexy Antonio Banderas looked, or say anything like, "If that's what Che Guevara was like, sign me up for the revolution!" Okay, on to the review.
The movie is gorgeously filmed, with the kind of elaborate sets, lush costumes, and "cast of thousands" crowd scenes that they just don't seem to do anymore. The music sounds terrific, although sometimes the soundtrack is out of sync with the visuals, so it looks sort of like that MTV game show where contestants lip-synced really badly.
Madonna is neither very good nor very bad, just sort of there. Her singing sounds a bit thin; the reason I thought she'd be great as Evita was that her singing in the past has had that brashness and spirit that the role requires, but it's largely missing here. And I really object to the single new song, "You Must Love Me." It feels tacked on, as I suspect it was, solely to garner radio/video play and make the movie eligible for some sort of award in the "best song" category. It's a generic (and I mean that in every bad way possible) love song that has nothing to do with the plot.
The true star of Evita is Antonio Banderas. He reveals a terrific sense of humor and has a dashing flair that's perfect for the role of the floating narrator Che. He fits in easily with peasants, waiters, reporters, any place his sardonic comments are needed. His energy gives the movie a boost any time he's on screen. And did I mention how damn hot he is? Oh right, I wasn't going to do that. But I can't lust after him too much anyway; I have no respect for anyone who dumps his wife for Melanie Griffith.
Jonathon Pryce, who, given his legit theater and movie credentials, ought to be the best actor in the movie, is instead the worst. The only movement in his face comes from his left eyebrow, which rises every now and then when he tries to express emotion. Otherwise he's stony-faced, and his singing reflects that. Then again, the role of Juan Peron is not all that important anyway.
The biggest problem with the movie is its director, Alan Parker. He should be taken out and shot, or at least have his Directors Guild card shredded. He begins with an obnoxious opening montage during the Requiem for Evita that essentially runs like a preview for the movie, which robs those scenes, when we eventually see them again later in the film, of their power. And he has these massive, sumptuous sets, but it seems he can't bear to let anyone look at them. During the two big crowd scenes -- Eva's funeral and Peron and Evita's victory speeches -- he cuts frantically from one angle to another. You don't have time to register what you're seeing before he jumps to another part of the crowd. Here's Eva's coffin from the front, the side, the back, crying woman, the front again, Peron, crowd shot, coffin from the top, all faster than you can read that sentence. It's annoying as hell, and totally out of sync with the spirit of the movie.
Bizarre
footnote:
I saw a show about Eva Peron recently that showed some rather gruesome
photos. Her body was embalmed because she told her husband she
never
wanted to be forgotten; he had some idea of displaying her much as the
Russians display Lenin. When Peron's power crumbled after her
death,
Evita's body was stolen by the Argentinian military because they feared
it would be used as a symbol to revive Peronism, and they hid her body
under a different name in an Italian cemetery. Seventeen years
later,
they returned the body to Argentina, and recently Evita's body was
exhumed
and examined for signs of decay. This program actually showed her
body! It was creepy -- she was in perfect condition after being
dead
for about 25 years. She looked like a wax figure. And the
most
disturbing thing about the photos was that they were blurred over her
torso,
which means she was naked, and somehow that's very unsettling to
me.
However, this does leave open the possibility of a sequel: ZOMBIE
EVITA -- "She's pretty, preserved, and PISSED OFF!"
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