El Cantante

Héctor Lavoe comes from Puerto Rico to New York and salsa does not yet carry that name. His voice is noticed at once. He joins Willie Colón's band and the two of them change the music. On stage nobody can hold Héctor. Off stage nobody can hold him either. Drugs come in, he is late to sessions, he does not turn up for concerts. He marries Puchi and the narrative runs through her; years later she speaks to camera, loving him and calling him to account at the same time. The losses pile up. Leon Ichaso directs. Marc Anthony plays Héctor and Jennifer Lopez plays Puchi; John Ortiz and Manny Perez are in the cast. It is an American production. Jennifer Lopez is among the producers. Marc Anthony sings the songs himself; he is a salsa musician and knows the Lavoe repertoire. The form is an interview; what Puchi says frames the narrative and the events come out of her memory. The matter it treats is what a voice does to the person who has it; the film does not show success as a rescue. Lavoe was born in 1946 and died in 1993; the narrative does not follow that span chronologically. The stage performances are the film's strongest side and the concert scenes are held long. Its limit is structure; the narrative follows the shape of decline, the sections away from the music are weak, and the chronology is scattered. Who it is for: viewers who like salsa and musician biographies. Who it is not for: it is conventional, bleak, and the ending bitter.