Much has been said about Madonna, but she has never been accused of being a gifted actress. Although she was the pop star of her generation and a genre-bending icon of fame, her dreams of Hollywood power never quite materialized. For every success, like Desperately looking for Susan or Dick Tracythere were a few flops that were forgettable (Bloodhounds of Broadway, Who is this girl?) and even greater disasters (Swept away, Shanghai surprise.) Her astonishing appeal as a musical actress simply didn’t translate to celluloid, although it didn’t help that the roles she often got were superficially drawn or straightforward parodies of her much-dissected personality. For one shining moment, however, Madonna fulfilled her dream of movie stardom and came dangerously close to an Oscar nomination. To achieve this, it took a great musical about a polarizing historical diva and a meta-analysis of Madonna’s appeal. That and a few songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Evathe hit Broadway play by Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice, was always sold on the strength of its leading lady. The original West End production launched an aggressive search for a new leading lady to play Eva Perón, the wife of Argentine politician Juan Perón. The Broadway version turned Patti Lupone into one of the biggest divas of American theater. When it came time to shoot the film, directed by Alan Parker, it seemed as if every major actress in Hollywood was jostling for the role. Meryl Streep came close to getting it. But it was Madonna who secured it. Parker insisted that if Madonna wanted to be his Eva, she had to understand that the film was “not a glorified Madonna video.” And yet the film undeniably makes some sacrifices to match the majesty of its megastar leading lady, for better or for worse.
Alan Parker’s Eva is a very strange film. It stays largely faithful to the stage show (but gives one of the best numbers to Madonna rather than the intended singer) and is often beautiful to look at. The sheer scale is impressive, as in the number “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” in which Madonna serenades 4,000 extras. It’s also a political mess, with Parker’s camera so enamored with spectacle that any sense of the show’s (admittedly weird) class-struggle themes is lost in it. This is a show that was not meant to be rooted in realism, but in pure Brechtian artificiality. Both Ken Russell and Oliver Stone were originally attached to the project, and one imagines their versions would have been both more appropriately frenetic and more politically biting.
Madonna is so clearly a star that this overshadows the story’s frequent disdain for Perón, who is portrayed as a talentless upstart with friends in all the right places. This works best when Madonna can wield her charisma like a knife, the perfect politician’s wife who knows when to smile for which camera, but it’s less effective when the camera is so intent on reveling in the magic of the Queen of Pop.
There is nothing to complain about Eva for giving in to her power. This is by far Madonna’s best film performance. Her natural charisma helps, as does the fact that the music was tailored to her voice, but she’s also great at conveying the barely concealed sense of contempt Perón feels for most of the people around her, including those she’s supposed to be helping. When Eva’s husband tells her she’s dying of cancer, Madonna’s reaction to the news that she won’t be in this world much longer is truly heartbreaking.
Parker may not have set out to make a Madonna music video, but it remains one, and this meta-parallel between two women with radical personality cults is what elevates the film above erratic source material and a misguided aesthetic. Having someone who can’t hit the high notes but is still too compelling to ignore play the hyper-ambitious wife of a dictator is extremely pushy, but Madonna seems to be the only person in the film who knows what to do. The best scenes are when she gets to sing numbers that already sound like Madonna songs, like “I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You,” in which she seduces Juan with the offer of a mutually beneficial romance.
Eva didn’t last long in people’s imaginations, but it was a box office success that gave Madonna the movie star status she’d fought for. She won a Golden Globe and came close to an Oscar nomination. But she didn’t make many more movies after that (and they were all crap). Maybe there just weren’t enough exciting roles that best suited a grande dame who needed the industry to adapt, not the other way around. Madonna never stopped being a performer, as the 28 years of her music career that followed attest. Despite genre changes, new eras, and the increasing scourge of misogyny and ageism, she never gave up the spotlight for a second. When the camera isn’t focused on her, she simply finds another stage. And isn’t that exactly what we want from Madonna? It’s either that or another Swept away…
“Evita” is streaming on Hoopla and can be rented or purchased digitally.
