Now let’s get into it. I had a hard time enjoying the music from the very start. Halfway through, I felt like walking out of the theater and finishing it at home on HBO Max. Then it dawned on me, and I asked myself, “why is this story a musical?” When I stripped away the music, songs, and fantastical dance numbers, there is a beautiful narrative of the immigrant experience and life in Washington Heights. These characters and their stories are compelling and full of drama, only to be ruined by the songs. I say this as a massive fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s other works, including Hamilton and Moana.
What’s wrong with the music? To me, there’s absolutely nothing memorable about it, save for its high energy. Less than twelve hours after watching the movie, I can’t sing a single line nor hum a melody. In Merrily We Roll Along, Stephen Sondheim mocked the idea that Broadway musicals need hummable melodies, but even in saying that, Sondheim consistently produced hummable melodies. Hamilton is full of them. The only thing memorable about the songs of In The Heights is the constant repetition of song titles. The best example is my favorite song in the film, Carnaval del Barrio, in which the phrase “Carnaval del Barrio” is the only thing I remember about the actual song. Most of the other songs are sing-talking songs, where the dialogue is set to music. Jonathan Larson’s Rent seemed to master sing-talking, and this is just a low rent version of Rent (Bam! There’s your quote!).
“There’s nothing wrong with the actual production or cast. It’s all great…”
I’ll add one more complaint. The pacing of the multiple stories is not balanced well. While the narrative is about Usnavi pursuing his dreams while courting Vanessa just days before he leaves, the other main story of Nina and her father and boyfriend takes too much of a back seat and disappears for long periods of time. There’s also a subplot regarding undocumented immigration that’s not given the proper attention to make its ultimate point. This storyline needed much more attention, which I bet it got in the original stage musical.
As a movie, I thought Jon M. Chu did an incredible job bringing In The Heights to cinematic life. There’s nothing wrong with the actual production or cast. It’s all great, but my issue is with the source material, specifically the songs. Like Cats, I was not put off by the visual effects or West Side Story-stylization of how people walk down the street, play basketball, or inexplicably dance in the middle of the road with an insanely competent set of skills and grace. But, look, this is musical for crying-out-loud. Chu employs some effects that helped bring the feel of Broadway to the big screen, and I loved it. These were effects that Disney’s Into The Woods should have used.
I wrestled with my score of In The Heights. I loved the story as a story, and I loved the dancing and effects, and cinematography. As much as I loved the production values, it was too much. It was an explosion of sound, color, and music and so much that it loses the intimacy one experiences on the stage (I’ve not seen the original musical), which is the same problem Into the Woods had. What ultimately sinks the film are the songs, which account for practically 80% of the production. Ultimately, it comes down to whether I would recommend the musical at all. The songs are so in-your-face, it just ruined the entire experience for me, and I can’t recommend the movie to anyone who is not a Broadway snob.
"…my issue is with the source material, specifically the songs."
The second paragraph of this piece leads me to wonder you watched the movie to the end, and whether doing so might have changed your review.
Real quick. The second paragraph was written as it was to not spoil the ending. Personally, I liked the ending. Plus I don’t think anything said in the second paragraph would have made the songs any better.
I hate self-conscious reviews like this. What is this, a blog? Talk about the movie, not you!
I agree with the person who commented that the director is the problem. I love the music and the characters . The chemistry between Benny and Nina was the strongest in my opinion but all the actors were great.But the problem is that this is an intimate story that was overpowered by massive dance numbers, stupid choreography, and awful pacing. I don’t need a city block full of people dancing more than once. Any more than that is overkill. There were songs that were beautiful that became lackluster because of stupid cgi tricks . If we had spent time getting to know Abuela then maybe I would have cared that she died .
After watching “In The Heights” and reading through the onslaught of glowing reviews I felt nothing less than mystified. People who hadn’t watched the musical (me included) could hardly keep track of character’s names because of just how awkward the pacing was. There was no development at all— and everyone came across as really unlikeable. I’m a huge crybaby (I’ve been known to sob during the Budweiser dog commercials), but couldn’t bring myself to flinch, even during the death of a pretty important character.
You can’t have a good movie with a rushed plot (if they couldn’t do justice to all of the stories, maybe they should have chosen to only focus on one or two), and you can’t have a good musical without good music (who knew?).
All of the pretty colors were nice though.
It’s amazing that a movie reviewer has to apologize at the beginning of the review for not liking the movie. Seriously??? What a joke. If you don’t like the movie, you don’t like the movie. Afraid of cancel culture??? Afraid of not being PC enough???? What a disgrace you have to apologize in the first sentence for not liking a movie. This just exemplifies what is wrong with the country. Too many people are afraid to speak up…..when they see someone doing something wrong….when a policy is passed that is wrong. Too scared of the PC police and cancel culture. Grow up….grow a set and just knock it off. This is too the point of ridiculousness. I am glad I am not in a foxhole overseas with this reviewer. He would be trembling with fear afraid to move an inch. EGADS!!!!!!!!
I actually didn’t apologize. I was simply stating I didn’t like the movie because I didn’t like the movie and not as a ploy to drive click bait traffic to our site.
The director is ultimately in charge of the narrative shape and a cohesive visual look and style. This movie failed on both counts. So I disagree with you. This was not a well directed movie.
Thank you for this review! It’s a relief to read a review that articulates my thoughts about this movie in the face of the overwhelmingly favorable reviews posted by others. I kept thinking I must be the worst person in the world for not liking this film! It is such an over-the-top explosion of gratuitous kitschiness I couldn’t get through the whole thing.
You liked Cats and not this. Enough said.
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