The story is nice, the costumes and the sets are beautifully designed. I haven’t seen a bad Spielberg movie, and this meets the expectations, even if this is a bit pretentious, as this is a musical. I haven’t yet seen the original movie, but everything is at the cutting edge: the singing, the choreographies, the songs, the performances. I’m not a lot into musicals, I don’t like many, but those I like, I really love. It’s not as strong as Luc Plamondon’s “Notre Dame de Paris”, Gérard Presgurvic’s “Roméo & Juliette: De la haine à l’amour” or “Les Miserables” (the one where Russell Crowe sings), but it’s very close to them.
The legendary EGOT-winner Rita Moreno returned to West Side Story and is playing the role of Valentina, a newly imagined character, the widow of the drugstore owner, “Doc,” in the original version. It was a nice touch, as I find her to have a very good role, story-wise.
The seven Oscar nominations are well deserved, Ariana DeBose managing a great performance, which might get her the statue in the same category that Rita Moreno won an Oscar 60 years ago, playing Anita in the original movie.
Regarding the set designs, Spielberg’s team really went all-in, putting to good use the technological advancements and the production budget of around $100 million, as opposed to the original budget of 6M (73M adjusted for inflation). However good it might be, this still feels like a remix, or an update, and that was seen in the box-office earnings (or lack of) which made this movie a financial bomb, barely making a third of its investment, while the original earned almost 8 times its budget. Different times, different tastes, I guess.
Great drama, great take on Shakespeare’s play, great music, totally worth seeing. 6 popcorns and 4 microphones (for the music).
Original 1961 version
