Film review: In the Heights

 

Great news! Usnavi, Nina, Vanessa, Benny and the whole gang of other inhabitants of Washington Heights are back – this time on the screen – to sing and dance about life “In The Heights.”

The plot’s been updated a bit and there seem to be a lot more dancers (or at least more hoofing) than in the stage version, but the feeling is the same. Director John M. Chu brings us a joyful, active, almost dizzying  portrait of a group of Latino immigrants celebrating life in a New York summer. And the look is even better, because it was filmed in the real Washington Heights.

At the center of the action is “Hamilton” veteran Anthony Ramos playing Usnavi, proprietor of the local bodega where people meet, hang out and enjoy life and an occasional frozen ice bar, when the Piragua guy (played by co-writer and Broadway wunderkind Lin-Manuel Miranda) wheels by with his cart. Miranda played Usnavi in the original stage version, but Ramos gives the part all the heart it needs and deserves.

Washington Heights is mostly Latino, but gentrifying. Rents are going up, the richer and whiter are buying the property and making residents like Usnavi pine to return to the Dominican Republic and open a bar on the beach like the one his father had.

Usnavi has eyes for Nina (Leslie Grace), a Stanford student and the first in her family to go to college. Her dad Kevin (Jimmy Smits) pins the family hopes on her.

Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), who wants to be a clothing designer, may end up moving downtown where that action is. Salon owner Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega) has already been forced to relocate her salon to the Bronx.

But for right now, celebration is in order and we’ll see such wondrously charming scenes and one set in a local public (so far) swimming pool, complete with a water ballet.

When a blackout hits, nobody gets bent out of shape. After all, that sort of thing is temporary, and this show is about something so much more important. It’s time to party at the “Carnaval del Barrio.”

Overseeing all the action is Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz), nobody’s and everybody’s grandma, who brings even more of a family feeling to the show.

Above all, “In the Heights” is about community and the relationships we find there, relayed in hip-hop style and a positive attitude.

There couldn’t be a better time for this delightful, upbeat, swinging show.