Picturehouse, 116mins, R

Written and Directed
by Leon Ichaso

The musical biopic is an old genre indeed. Some are good, some are bad and others are truly great. This is none of the above, somewhat around mediocre. The reason isn't the music, which is fine, that is if you like Salsa. The problem is with the acting and the script. There really isn't much there.

The subject of the film is one Hector Lavoe(Marc Anthony), a co-inventor of the genre and it's first real superstar. Had he not been an addict, he would probably have had some other sort of tragedy, but he never overcame the one he had. That was his tragedy, and may have been partly the fault of his shrewish wife Puchi(Jennifer Lopez), who did an interview with the one of the people working on the film before the Ichaso got the project, and makes part of the core of the film. It's supposed to be from her point of view, but doesn't really work all that well on that accord. While Sissy Specek's Loretta Lynn and Jamie Foxx 's Ray Charles were interesting people with interesting lives. Anthony's Lavoe is just a slightly charming nutcase who doesn't do all that much beyond get high and make music.

There is some interesting things that are hinted at, there's his musical partnership with trombonist Willie Colon(John Ortiz), and his relationships with his sister and son, but we get very little of that, and just get musical numbers [nothing wrong with that] and our hero becoming a complete wreck with little real expanation.

If you like the music of the real Hector Lavoe, then this might be worth a look, otherwise, don't bother. This is not a good introduction.

 

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