West Side Story – 7.3

My Fair Lady has the best songs, but West Side Story has the best score of any Broadway musical, and it was a treat to hear it (conducted by Gustavo Dudamel) on a big screen in a big theater (with only two other people). The story of Romeo (Tony) and Juliet (Maria) has stood the test of time and doesn’t need or deserve my quibbles. That leaves open the question of this particular production by Steven Spielberg with these actors. These were my reservations: Ansel Elgort was unconvincing and uninteresting as Tony: a pretty boy without the fire to lead the Jets, serve a year in Attica or kill someone. His extra height was supposed to make him stand apart, I guess, but it added to the perception that he belonged in another movie. The dancing was another problem: a few of the set pieces were cute, but others largely distracted: we waited for them to end so the story could continue. And, as with In the Heights, there were too many. Maria was lovely and had the only voice you wanted to hear, but the secondary characters were nondescript. Officer Krupke, normally a buffoonish relief, was a nonentity, as portrayed by the normally reliable Brian d’Arcy James. Spielberg presumably felt a need to be faithful to the original production–hence all the dancing–but I wish he had tackled the story afresh, building around the music. As it was, I felt this movie would have made a great stage play.