The Mambo Kings

* I have not read Oscar Hijuelos's prize-winning novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, though I know many of its admirers; I do, however, regret the film's shortening of the title to the far less poetic The Mambo Kings, even though there may be a rough justice in this, as the movie omits the latter parts of the book. We get here the story of two mambo-mad brothers from Havana: Cesar, the protective elder one, and Nestor, the younger one, in need of protection. Both are accomplished musicians, but the bestial nightclub owner for whom they work craves Nestor's stunning girlfriend, Maria, and forces her to marry him lest he kill her lover. Cesar finds out the truth when the brute very nearly slits his throat. To avoid danger for Nestor, Cesar allows him to believe that Maria betrayed him, and whisks him off to a new life in New York in 1952.

Here they lead a split existence as toilers in a meat-packing plant by day, salsa musicians in various spots--mostly small, but occasionally big--by night. Nestor is the songwriter and trumpeter, still dreaming of repossessing Maria; Cesar is the rake, the realist, and singer-drummer-pianist. They start a band, The Mambo Kings, playing at the modest Club Babalu, while Nestor still yearns for a club of his own. Cesar, satisfied, has a steady mistress in Lanna Lake, the cigarette girl at the Palladium, who loves him; presumably, the odd girl on the side; and an appearance, together with Nestor, on the I Love Lucy show. What more can a pragmatist ask for?

Nestor meets a nice young Cuban fellow refugee, Dolores, who falls in love with him, even though she secretly craves and is craved by Cesar; they marry, although Dolores sadly realizes that the lost Maria will always be numero uno. In fact, the bleeding-heart bolero Nestor wrote for her, "Beautiful Maria of My Soul," is the leitmotif of the movie, standing for all sorts of things, probably too many. There are encounters with various greats of Latino music, shady figures from Hispanic nightlife, a fling (with a Maria lookalike) even for Nestor, and tragic death. Mostly, though, the film is about the love of the two brothers for each other, which is truly mystical and greater even than the love for the lost beloved, the lost homeland, the latest mambo.

My guess is that all this works better in the novel, a genre in which texture can be woven more finely with leisurely minuteness, so that everyday life achieves a solid, palpable presence. The film was directed by a tyro, Arne Glimcher, co-owner of the Pace Gallery, who fell in love with the book, got the rights, and insisted on directing himself. There are some nice visual effects, as befits a gallery owner's eye, but also a certain thinness in the getting across of quotidian existence. There are some eye-catching montages as well, but these might as easily be the work of the splendid cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who may have been directing the director.

At least the overwhelming fraternal love does amply register in a variety of soul-searching closeups and two-shots, covering everything from brotherly horseplay to something bordering on passion. There is also a genuine feel for the period music, Hispanic subdivision, and for the places in which it flourished. The acting, too, is good to excellent. Antonio Banderas is a warmly childlike Nestor, Cathy Moriarty (Lanna) as golden-hearted as she is platinum-haired, and the Dutch actress Maruschka Detmers is a touching, desperately human Dolores. Roscoe Lee Brown is oozily sinister as a Hispanic mobster, and as Maria, Talisa Soto is achingly lovely. But the magisterial performance is that of Armand Assante as Cesar. His accent may not be quite right, but everything else is superb; the performance is finely layered, doing justice to the macho operator, the impassioned ballroom dancer, the arrogant bluffer, and the suffering sibling. Assante has long languished in inferior roles; if The Mambo Kings helps him to his much-delayed stardom, it will have done us all sufficient service.

COPYRIGHT 1992 National Review, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning