If a person needed proof that popular singer Marc Anthony is one heck of an actor they wouldn’t need to look much further than the new musical biopic El Cantante about legendry Salsa pioneer Héctor Lavoe. After remarkable supporting turns in films as diverse as Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead and Tony Scott’s Man on Fire the man is a true force of nature here, and every time he’s on-screen he galvanized my attention like a master magician getting ready to uncork his signature trick.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony heat things up in Picturehouse's El Cantante

Good thing, because without him I’m very sad to say this movie would have been in some very serious trouble. Co-writer and director Leon Ichaso (Piñero) has fashioned his story in shorthand, using many clichés of the genre and the audience’s understanding of them to quickly bounce his narrative through two-plus decades of material. It’s glossy and thin and altogether a bit unfocused, but thanks to Anthony it is also never boring (and sometimes electrifying) the actor elevating the material to a level it probably would never have attained without him. 

It’s a little sad, actually, because Lavoe’s pioneering (and heartbreaking) story was one I did not know. Charting his rise from the streets of Puerto Rico to the penthouses of Manhattan, El Cantante uses the singer’s fiery relationship with wife of twenty years Puchi (Jennifer Lopez, also serving as one of the film’s producers) as its backbone. As the years role by the two fight, make up, have a kid, fight some more, have sex, dance, sing, do drugs, engage in a bit more fighting and endure unthinkable tragedy. Throughout it all Lavoe becomes one of the biggest Latin stars of all time, changing the face of music in ways still reverberating through the industry even today.

The thing is, try and tell me you haven’t seen all of this before? Just recently we’ve already had Ray and Walk the Line, two pictures whose templates Ichaso follows almost to the letter. But there are also elements of Sweet Dreams, Star!, La Bamba, What’s Love Got to Do With It? And even Lopez’s Selena here, the filmmaker not finding a single cliché of the genre he isn’t willing to embrace with open arms. On top of that, he also spends more time focusing on Puchi than he does on Hector resulting in the unpleasant realization I knew more about her then I ever did about the guy who is supposed to be the film’s focus.

These are serious problems and, as such, keep the story from connecting as strongly as it should. And yet, I refuse to call El Cantante a complete failure. The music is extraordinary, Ichaso directing these concert sequences with a bravado that’s quite astonishing. Cinematographer Claudio Chea’s (Washington Heights) camera glides over thing with style and panache, Lavoe’s fiery Latin rhythms pulsating like a firecracker driving the film’s soundtrack like a fire truck speeding towards a musically dancing blaze.

 But it is Anthony who makes this pulpy story’s beating heart sing. Forget about Lopez, while she admittedly looks fabulous in all of the glitzy fashions her character (not to mention her Rosie Perez impersonation) isn’t worth mentioning, it’s her real-life husband we should be talking about. He’s magnificent, taking this familiar and overly-cliché film and magnetically carrying it to the finish line atop his lithely boogieing shoulders. He’s amazing, and anyone who can’t see it seriously needs to head to the doctor and get their eyes examined. 

I must admit, I still have trouble recommending the film even with Anthony’s magnificence. I never invested enough into the thing to feel a true connection to either the singer or his story, Ichaso keeping the distance between me and Lavoe far too great for this to actually occur. But the actor is superb, and even in spite of all the picture’s numerous faults every time he takes the stage to perform El Cantante can’t help but sing. I just wished it happened more often because, if it did, then this labor of love for the two stars might have actually turned out to be a song of soulful remembrance I could have adored, too.

Film Rating: êê1/2  (out of 4)

Additional Links

-  El Cantante Theatrical Trailer