Possibly my favorite musical.

One of my favorite musicals, surpassed only by Moulin Rouge and Grease. I didn't like the opening musical number, but everything else was fantastic. My grade: A-.

A/A-

It's remarkable that in a film where characters move to place to place by dancing, and where the screenplay is intentionally overly theatrical, that the singing and numbers come as natural as any musical I've seen. When Wood opens her mouth to sing "I'm so pretty" or when Beymer starts singing "Maria", there is no crack in the atmosphere, you completley buy into these characters singing the songs. That's a feat that strangely enough not many musicals can accomplish.

One thing that surprised me, coming in I knew it followed the Romeo and Juliet type of love story, I didn't know it WAS Romeo and Juliet... a scene by scene adaptation. The opening, the dance, the balcony, the fight, the misunderstanding... Kind of ruined the suspense actually, but then again, just like in that play how we immediately know this love is doomed, we do in here as well.

I thought the ending was really brilliant. Other than the obvious power of Tony's death, you keep waiting for Maria to blow herself away, you keep waiting for that final shot as she's holding the gun... But it never happens. As we look into her suddenly cold eyes as she stares out over the body, the message is that life goes on, hardship is everlasting, and she will live with this coldness for the rest of her life. Wise realized that life is important enougt to strive through the hurt, and that in itself is more powerful than Shakespeare's ending in my opinion. Maria as she walks away despite the unbelievable setting is a full blooded and real character and human, someone who is too scared to take her own life, someone who was caught in a flame but recognizes she has to live on. It's almost important for the film as Wise recognized that while he followed R&J almost exactly, this story is its own entity, and with the twist finale he stamped its own original power on it.

The music and choreography in the film is fairly fantastic. It's just so... fun. The whole thing is set in an unbelievable theatrical state, though as a decision, that just helps the film. My favorite songs was the "Psychologically Disturbed" one and "Stay Cool", along with "I'm so pretty" and the short "When you're a jet" sequence. It's definitley one of the more entertaining musicals to be made.

The acting is all charasmatic, with the standouts being Moreno(a much deserved Oscar) and Tamblyn, though Wood and Beymer as the leads carried the roles very well. Chakiris was also very good, though I wouldn't have given him the win.

The film isn't flawless, mostly due to some overly cheesy scenes and sequences. Some sections like the love at first sight dance meeting scene don't work out too well. It's not very deep, though it doesn't try to be.

Overall, a big success. I like.

Not nearly as good as Moulain Rogue but an excellent film.

I liked it more at one point, but I've really grown tired of most of it.

B?