SELENA
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Warner Bros.) Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Jon Seda, Constance Marie, Jackie Guerra, Jacob Vargas. Screenplay: Gregory Nava. Producers: Moctesuma Esparza and Robert Katz. Director: Gregory Nava. MPAA Rating: PG (profanity) Running Time: 130 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
I was ready to learn a few things from writer/director Gregory Nava (MY FAMILY [MI FAMILIA]) about Selena Quintanilla Perez, the superstar of the Tejano music scene who was shot to death in 1995 at the age of 23. Selena enjoyed a phenomenal popularity among Mexican-Americans, and seemed poised to cross over to mainstream English-language success as well. What was the secret of Selena's stardom? How did she make it to the top? Well, after two hours and ten minutes of SELENA, I'm still not quite sure. I know a few things about her family, a couple of things about her love life...I even know that she loved pizza. There are plenty of details about Selena's life, but no _story_ of her life. Without a compelling narrative direction, SELENA becomes a polished and respectful feature film version of an A&E "Biography."
Jennifer Lopez plays the title role in SELENA, which opens in 1995 at a record-setting Houston Astrodome concert, then flashes back 34 years in her family's history. We see her father Abraham first as a young man trying to make it in a doo-wop vocal group, then twenty years later (played by Edward James Olmos) as a middle class oil company employee with wife Maricela (Constance Marie) aand three children. When Abraham spots musical talent in the 10-year-old Selena (Rebecca Lee Meza), he pushes all the children into music, and forms an act with Selena singing out front. The band begins to hit it big with the Spanish lyrics and cumbia rhythms of Tejano music, launching Selena into regional recognition. Abraham dreams of even bigger things, however, and doesn't want anything to get in the way, including Selena's romance with band guitarist Chris Perez (Jon Seda).
Nava tries to cover a lot of ground in SELENA, and one of the film's primary flaws is that it seems more interested in relating events than in giving those events any shape. There are a dozen minor conflicts strewn throughout SELENA, many of which could have been used to define what this film is about. Instead, Nava treats each one episodically, like a minor hiccup in Selena's life which proves of little long-term consequence. Maricela rails against Abraham's decision to quit his job and open a restaurant, but then she goes silent for almost the entire rest of the film; Abraham forbids Selena from seeing Chris, but all is forgiven once they are married. There are even confusing gaps in the story-telling (Who were those guys who trashed Chris's hotel room, anyway? And when did the band get a recording contract?) which make SELENA feel even more unfocused.
SELENA generally feels most on-track when it captures her performances. The concert footage is somewhat over-dramatized, but Jennifer Lopez gives a charismatic performance as Selena, lip-synching to the real Selena's recordings while smiling a thousand-watt smile and radiating a genuine affection for her fans. Nava tries to give her calling more weight -- Selena says at one point that she feels "all the hopes and dreams" of her fans -- but mostly she just seems to be a born performer with an approachable personality. Lopez has some very nice moments, as does the generally reliable Olmos. His intensity, and the sense of responsibility he instills in Selena as a Mexican-American celebrity, give SELENA its greatest sense of purpose.
Even then, however, it still feels compromised by its unwillingness to dig very deeply. SELENA is a _very_ authorized biography, supervised and executive produced by Abraham Quintanilla, which means that the only villain in the piece is going to be Yolanda Saldivar (Lupe Ontiveros), the Selena Fan Club president who shot Selena in an argument over embezzlement from the club. Abraham is given a tap on the wrist for his stubbornness in opposing Selena's relationship with Chris, but otherwise he comes out looking pretty good. Nava doesn't challenge Abraham's obsessive stage parenting as a substitute for his own failed music career, nor does he wonder whether the children actually enjoyed their life on the road. More to the point of the film, Nava tells Selena's story as though she should be a hero simply because she was a successful Chicana. There are worse reasons to lionize someone than for being a good role model, and it is certainly a tragedy that a young woman died too soon, but the story of Selena's life just doesn't make for a very compelling dramatic film. SELENA didn't need to be filled with dirt; it just needed a reason for being besides providing a pleasant but unremarkable memorial to a pleasant but unremarkable singer. The well-made and well-acted SELENA will almost certainly satisfy Selena's fans. Those of us who didn't understand why she was so beloved may have to wait for the unauthorized biography.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 cumbiagraphies: 5.
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