El Cantante: Critic Reviews

A conventional, brassy blat of a biopic.

Whenever Marc Anthony takes the stage as Hector Lavoe in El Cantante, he unleashes his charisma and shows that, whatever his limitations as an actor, he is a brilliant performer.

There is something entirely dead about Lopez's performance. No matter how superficially lively she makes it, she is always simply mouthing the lines. Never mind Jenny from the block. Jenny is the block. Of wood.

The music is the uncontested highlight of El Cantante, which tells the story of the tragic life of salsa legend Hector Lavoe.

Ironically, Lavoe's sad story serves mostly to remind viewers that Lopez is still the dazzling force of nature that burst onto the screen a scant 10 years ago.

Where's the ambition? Where's the passion?

A garish, dispiriting bit of work.

The awkwardly told story of salsa legend Hector Lavoe, El Cantante doesn't even get the title right: It should have been called La Esposa, since it's really less about the singer than his wife.

The film's first half is an uneven string of scenes that offer little setup and sometimes confuse.

Nothing gets explored at length, and some key points are glossed over altogether, namely Hector's out-of-wedlock son and his frequent womanizing. Such factual details would demoralize Puchi. They are merely mentioned, then ignored.

El Cantante never nails the ecstatic moment of musical collaboration we crave from this genre. Where is the scene that gives us a fly-on-the-wall view of salsa's creation?

The director (Leon Ichaso) and his co-writers haven't licked a crucial question: Why do we need to see this movie and not just listen to the music?

What is it about the biopic genre that gravitates toward the same sea of cliches, no matter what the sound or era?

Marc Anthony plays the smack-addicted singer, who has some dynamite numbers but not much to say for himself.

Directed with palpable passion and terrific period feel by Ichaso, El Cantante has camerawork and editing that move with the 4/4 rhythm of salsa, upbeat even when the drama grows downbeat.

You're watching Jennifer Lopez, but you may as well be watching a female impersonator impersonating Jennifer Lopez.

J-Lo really delivers the goods. I haven't always been a fan, but she makes this movie a must-see.

A virtual template of every imaginable cliche of the musical biopic, pic suffers from a lack of narrative and character focus.

A downer of a musical biopic that leaves no cliche unturned.

The movie's good intentions and great music win out.

This may be one of the very few biopics in which the subject is marginalized to the point of irrelevance.

El Cantante has to legitimize its subject before it can immortalize him; and in the effort, it makes the mistake of letting a star get in the way of the truth.

El Cantante disintegrates into a stylized jumble -- even a straightforward jumble would have been preferable.

Unfortunately, the music is as irresistible as the tired story of a musician succumbing to substance abuse is resistible.

Ultimately, El Cantante, which is also the title of Hector's signature song, leaves you feeling like you've watched yet another cliche, a shortened life in the same polluted vein as Jim Morrison or Edith Piaf.