West Side Story

Overlong yet entertaining, West Side Story details the turmoil that ensues after two New York City-based gangs, the Sharks and the Jets, decide to escalate their ongoing rivalry – with complications ensuing as one of the Jets, Richard Beymer’s Tony, falls in love with the sister (Natalie Wood’s Maria) of a high-ranking Sharks member. West Side Story has been infused with an impressively theatrical (yet cinematic) feel by filmmakers Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, with the unapologetically over-the-top atmosphere reflected most prominently in the larger-than-life performances and arrestingly conceived and executed set pieces. There’s little doubt, then, that the decidedly thin nature of the movie’s plot is, at the outset, not as problematic as one might’ve suspected, as Robbins and Wise essentially use the storyline as a jumping-off point for a series of energetic, visually sumptuous musical numbers. (It’s clear, too, that certain sequences fare better than others, with the electrifying first encounter between Tony and Maria standing as an obvious highlight.) The palpably excessive running time becomes more and more noticeable as time progresses, however, as scripter Ernest Lehman offers up a middling midsection that’s dominated by passable yet forgettable interludes. (And it doesn’t help, either, that the emphasis is, during this stretch, removed from the film’s most entertaining aspect, Maria and Tony’s burgeoning romance.) Still, West Side Story is, by and large, a striking musical that lives up to its reputation as a singular piece of work – with the film’s minor deficiencies generally canceled out by its pervasive atmosphere of good-natured exuberance.

*** out of ****