Director
Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) brings Lin-Manuel Miranda's award-winning
stage musical In the Heights (in theaters and on HBO Max) to the big
screen with mixed results.
While the film follows a large cast of
characters (sometimes too big for the movie's own good), its main character is
Usnavi (Anthony Ramos), a bodega owner in Washington Heights who dreams of
returning home to open a beach bar in his native Dominican Republic. There are
also stories about Nina (Leslie Grace), an overachiever who has returned home
from Stanford, and Benny (Corey Hawkins), Nina's ex who works dispatch for
Nina's father's (Jimmy Smits) car company.
On the plus side, the main characters
are likable and Chu does make the musical numbers feel cinematic. However, one
of the challenges of adapting books or stage musicals to film is both are
almost always longer than movies. So tough choices have to be made to cut
material to keep the film running smoothly. At 143 minutes, In the Heights feels
long. It could've been cut to the 120 to 125-minute range without losing
anything in terms of story or character. For example, a minor character who
owns a salon gets a lengthy musical number late in the film when she leaves the
neighborhood. It's completely unnecessary, stalls the story's momentum, and
adds several minutes to the running time.
Fans of Miranda or the original musical will likely find things to enjoy here, but In the Heights falls short of being magical.
