This movie plays much better now than it did when it was made 22 years ago. The character of Evita is a Kardashian who went into politics, offering the poor content-free populism combined with vicarious luxury and impulsive, haphazard charity. Her message to the adoring masses is, "I am just like you, only more so, so live through me." It worked in Argentina then. It works in the US of A today.

Aside from the fact that snobby upper class people don't like Evita, we don't get any sense of political context. You need to know a little Argentine history to know that Peron gained his popularity by being the pro-union Minister of Labor under a revolving door military junta. Only then do the brief packing house scenes make any sense. And the movie gives no idea of what Peron thought he was trying to accomplish economically or why he failed. Webber and Parker aren't interested in anything except the dynamics of Evita's celebrity.

Unfortunately, Madonna is the hole in the center of the movie. Her performance as the title character "sleeping" her way to the top in a patriarchy where men control everything is wooden, her voice thin, and her sufferings at the end completely uninvolving.

Two things make the movie worth watching. First, the ensemble numbers and crowd scenes -- Good Night and Thank You, The Government We Deserve, Peron's Newest Flame and The New Argentina have great vitality. Second, Banderas is wonderful as Che. That's a common Argentine nickname, and Parker wrote the character as an Argentine everyman instead of Castro's bearded sidekick. It works. Whether he's a janitor, a worker, a demonstrator, a newspaper reporter or one of the rich, Banderas brings off the role of running commentator with great panache, powerful singing, and just enough of an accent (those rolling Rs in Casa Rrrrrrosada).

And there's one good line. As she's pushing past a crowd of leftist demonstrators in Italy, Evita angrily asks the Argentine ambassador, "Did you hear that? They called me a whore" He replies calmly, "It's an easy mistake. They still call me Admiral even though I left the sea long ago."

This was a simply stupendous movie. The visuals and costumes were stunning, the new realization of the musical score excellent. Madonna deserves more credit than she has gotten for this. Although her voice is perhaps a bit thin for the role, she really stretched herself for this, and did a fine job. Banderas was simply fantastic. Most of the naysayers (and there are many),clearly don't care for Weber, or for musicals in general. Of course it isn't "deep", it's a musical! The question is how well was the original play transformed to the screen, and I would be hard pressed to imagine anything more successful than this.

Opening with her premature death, this musical about Argentinean first lady Eva Péron flashes back in time to show her rise to fame before becoming embroiled in politics when her husband assumed control of the country. The standout aspects here are the music and memorable songs, however, they are a mixed blessing. There is a hardly any spoken dialogue with the characters singing over 90% of the time, which renders it hard to get under anyone's skin. By the end, one gets the sense that Eva was loved by many and hated by some, but the reasons why are never clear with the music/songs always at the forefront; it is not clear either how Eva ticked as an individual and how her mind worked, and Madonna is hardly spectacular, vocals aside. Antonio Bandares gets the film's best moments as a narrator of sorts, slyly winking at the camera and exuding lots of charisma, but he is not on screen anywhere near often enough to carry the project. Those with some knowledge of the actual Eva Péron and Argentina's political history may well get more out of the film. For those uneducated in such areas though, this is not a great place to start. Accurate sets and costumes ensure that the film looks good and with all that amazing music it sounds good too, but if as important as the film makes out her life to be, a non- musical narrative may have done better justice to the legacy of Eva Péron.