Evita

Would-be emotional powerhouse struggles through with a near endless soundtrack and musical numbers that will tire very fast. Tim Rice's play about the titled character (Madonna), a woman who became the first lady to Argentina for a time before succumbing to illness, becomes a near interminable experience on the big screen. The titled lady was a B-movie actress who eventually became the love of the president's (Jonathan Pryce) life. Her life is told by musical narrator Antonio Banderas and her relationship (usually good and very rarely bad) with the common people in her country is given some time as well. Screenwriter/director Alan Parker chose an odd subject here and honestly the movie just never really got off the ground for me. Madonna (who has never proven she can act) dominates with her singing and that is all right, but the constant routine sucks the drama out of the important story. Really this is too much of a musical and not enough of a drama. It easily won the Best Original Song Oscar in 1996 for "You Must Love Me", but considering the amount of singing in this thing it was bound to win that award. Disappointing and over-rated, "Evita" is one of the bigger duds of the 1990s that has somehow endeared itself to many in the viewing public. 2.5 out of 5 stars.