I almost gave up on Evita early on. It begins with a long, bombastic number that throws a bunch of melodic scraps in the mix while never resolving into a song. It is very melodramatic and is followed by some equally pretentious musical numbers.
And then, just as I was about to ask my girlfriend if we should just give up on it, there was an actual song. This was about a half hour in, but there was a song, and it was pretty good. And it was followed by another.
Meanwhile, the story became more engrossing as Eva Peron crawled her way out of the gutter and became a cultural icon.
Towards the end, the music declined and the drama became almost painfully maudlin. The movie also portrays Eva as unredeemable cynical for an hour and then asks you to feel for her. It's as though they wanted to portray a complex character of dark and light but the dark and light just separated like oil and vinegar and pooled in different parts of the movie.
Antonio Banderas is terrific as the everyman Che, and Madonna is very solid as Eva; she worked so hard on her singing for the film that afterward she put out the first really good albums of her pop career (the first time I heard Ray of Light I thought, "who is this startling new singer?).
I'm only familiar with three Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals. Musically this is weaker than Jesus Christ Superstar but far better than Phantom of the Opera.
A day after watching this I watched Passing Strange, a filmed performance of a Broadway play that was minimalist and electrifying. If you would like to see an amazing minimalist rock opera in which the set is basically actors on chairs and the band is a quartet, I'd highly recommend it. But if you want sturm und drang, Evita is definitely the musical for you.
And then, just as I was about to ask my girlfriend if we should just give up on it, there was an actual song. This was about a half hour in, but there was a song, and it was pretty good. And it was followed by another.
Meanwhile, the story became more engrossing as Eva Peron crawled her way out of the gutter and became a cultural icon.
Towards the end, the music declined and the drama became almost painfully maudlin. The movie also portrays Eva as unredeemable cynical for an hour and then asks you to feel for her. It's as though they wanted to portray a complex character of dark and light but the dark and light just separated like oil and vinegar and pooled in different parts of the movie.
Antonio Banderas is terrific as the everyman Che, and Madonna is very solid as Eva; she worked so hard on her singing for the film that afterward she put out the first really good albums of her pop career (the first time I heard Ray of Light I thought, "who is this startling new singer?).
I'm only familiar with three Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals. Musically this is weaker than Jesus Christ Superstar but far better than Phantom of the Opera.
A day after watching this I watched Passing Strange, a filmed performance of a Broadway play that was minimalist and electrifying. If you would like to see an amazing minimalist rock opera in which the set is basically actors on chairs and the band is a quartet, I'd highly recommend it. But if you want sturm und drang, Evita is definitely the musical for you.