There are certain things one expects from a prime-slot Sundance premiere. Crowd-pleasing character-based comedies, rural mood-over-plot dramas, provocative and probing documentaries; all tied together by the importance of an independent spirit, the reason the festival was birthed back in the late 1970s.
Sunday night then brought with it something a little more confounding: a splashy, Jennifer Lopez-starring, Affleck and Damon-produced adaptation of a Broadway musical combining Argentinian prison drama and technicolour song-and-dance setpieces. The inclusion of Kiss of the Spider Woman on a lineup that has been noticeably edging away from a reliance on A-list names raised a few eyebrows – wouldn’t this have been a better play at a more commercial showcase like Toronto? – but it brought a welcome sense of the unexpected to Park City, grit briefly replaced with glamour.
