El cantante

El Cantante
Directed by	Leon Ichaso
Produced by	Julio Caro Simon Fields Jennifer Lopez David Maldonado
Written by	Leon Ichaso David Darmstaeder Todd Anthony Bello
Starring	Marc Anthony Jennifer Lopez
Music by	Toma De Mi
Distributed by	Picturehouse
Release date(s)	Toronto International Film Festival September 12, 2006 United States August 3, 2007
Running time	106 min.
Language	English
Box office	$7,911,532

El Cantante is a 2006 American film released in the United States on August 3, 2007. The biopic stars singer Marc Anthony and actress-singer Jennifer Lopez (she also served as an executive producer for the film). The film is based on the life story of salsa legend Héctor Lavoe (played by Marc Anthony). In the film, Marc Anthony portrayed a music legend and "Anthony's personal tribute to Lavoe was his imitation of not just Lavoe's style, but his voice, his delivery, his timing – well, it was quite amazing and true to Lavoe."^[1]

The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2006. The film runs 106 minutes and has an R rating due to scenes depicting drug use, pervasive language and some sexuality. The film chronicles Héctor Lavoe's rise to fame, his battle with drugs, his attempted suicide, and his death from AIDS.

Critical reception

"Ms. Lopez brings a lot of fight to her performance, a hard, skeptical edge that makes Puchi a more interesting and plausible character than her husband."^[2] Some film critics have expressed their surprise at the relatively high profile given to the Puchi character in the film (as compared to Nilda Perez's relatively subdued influence over Lavoe's career). The film was criticized for its formulaic writing and hollow character development.^{[citation needed]} It received a 22% "rotten" certification from the entertainment website Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus being it "adheres to the most basic conventions of the musical biopic, rendering it indistinguishable from others of its ilk".

Principal cast

• Marc Anthony – Héctor Lavoe
• Jennifer Lopez – Nilda Georgina "Puchi" Roman
• Federico Castelluccio – Jerry Masucci
• Vincent Laresca – Ralph Mercado
• Víctor Manuelle – Rubén Blades
• John Ortiz – Willie Colón

Soundtrack

Main article: El Cantante (soundtrack)

Box office

The film opened at #12 at the U.S. Box Office, grossing over US$3,254,000 on its three-day weekend, with a total gross of US $7,556,712. The film was screened in only 542 theaters throughout the United States, a substantially small number of theaters compared to number of theaters that The Bourne Ultimatum, which opened #1 at the U.S. Box office during its opening weekend, was screened in nearly 4,000 theaters. El Cantante made about US$6,004 per theater in its opening week. The films distributor, Picturehouse, has rearranged how the film is distributed in an attempt to target the film to its audience. Each film print cost Picturehouse US$2,000. Picturehouse removed El Cantante from theaters which showed softer sales while opening in more theaters where demand was high.^[3]

DVD release and sales

Released on October 30, 2007 El Cantante became a DVD hit. Peaking at #8 in the DVD chart, it grossed $16.61 million on DVD.^[4]

Criticism

Willie Colon, Lavoes' long time friend and musical partner, was critical of the film, writing on his web site:

The Creators of El Cantante missed an opportunity to do something of relevance for our community. The real story was about Hector fighting the obstacles of a non-supportive industry that took advantage of entertainers with his charisma and talent. Instead they did another movie about two Puerto Rican junkies. The impact of drugs in the entertainment industry is nothing new; look at Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Whitney Houston today.^[5]

Fans of the film point out that the film did cover briefly the issue about Lavoe not getting paid by Jerry Masucci. Eddie, played by Manny Perez, says to Hector:

"Jerry (Jerry Masucci) used to be a cop, then a lawyer, now he's a thief, robbing every Latin musician blind – but, he's all we've got."^[6]

Lopez responded to the criticism when interviewed by the Los Angeles Times : "I don't know what movie they want to see, because this is the truth."^[7]

Another controversy is the amount of screen time Jennifer Lopez has in the film.^{[citation needed]} Critics of the film say that Puchi played a small role in Hector's musical life, while fans say the story is told from Puchi's point of view so she had to be shown as present in much of the film.^[8]

When commenting on the film, Lopez felt her performance should have earned Oscar nomination and blamed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for overlooking both the film and her performance.^[9]

Awards and nominations

• ALMA Awards: nomination for Outstanding Performance of a Lead Latino /a Cast in a Motion Picture.^{[citation needed]}
• Premios Juventud: nomination for Best Movie and Best Actress (Jennifer Lopez)
• Latin Grammy Awards: Won Best Salsa Album, Marc Anthony (El Cantante soundtrack) (see Latin Grammy Awards of 2008)

References

Puerto Rico portal

1. ^ "latinmusic.about.com". http://latinmusic.about.com/od/cdmusicreviews/fr/REVELCANTANTE.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 
2. ^ Scott, A. O. (August 3, 2007). "movies.nytimes.com". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/movies/03cant.html. Retrieved 2011-03-16. 
3. ^ http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070812/ENT01/708120319/1031/ENT
4. ^ BoxOfficeMojo.com: El Cantante
5. ^ :::Willie Colon Official Site::::
6. ^ Picturehouse Forum :: View topic – Willie Colon says it best
7. ^ Gurza, Agustin (August 4, 2007). "Friendly fire over salsa movie – Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-culture4aug04,1,102722.story?coll=la-entnews-movies. 
8. ^ Picturehouse Forum :: View topic – A review on another review
9. ^ Jennifer Lopez Tells ‘Latina’ Magazine She Deserves An Oscar from Latina magazine February 2010

External links

• Official site
• El Cantante on the Internet Movie Database
• El Cantante at Rotten Tomatoes