Directed by: Jon M. Chu
Starring: Anthony Ramos, Melissa Barrera, Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins, Gregory Diaz IV
Rated PG-13, 143 minutes
There may be no dorkier celebrity than Lin-Manuel Miranda. Sure, the family-friendly, learning-is-cool rap and hip-hop showtunes of “Hamilton” that launched him into the mainstream are dorky enough, but what really seals the deal is the earnestness with which he writes and performs. That earnestness might even be why he’s so popular—in an age of cynics, Miranda is the guy you can count on to engage fully with sentimentality, for better or worse.
“In the Heights,” a new adaptation of Miranda’s first Broadway musical, finds him visiting decidedly sentimental territory. A tribute to New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood, the musical follows an ensemble of Latin American first- and second-generation immigrants over the course of a scorching hot summer. Usnavi (Anthony Ramos, “A Star Is Born”), who runs the bodega at the center of the neighborhood, dreams of returning to the Dominican Republic, his birthplace, to run his father’s old bar; Vanessa (Melissa Barrera, “Dos Veces Tú”), the center of Usnavi’s affections, dreams of designing clothing downtown instead of doing hair and nails up in the Heights; Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV, “Vampires vs. the Bronx”), Usnavi’s cousin, dreams of obtaining citizenship and going to college. And so on, through a cast of friends hanging out and abuelas cooking and kids playing in the spray of fire hydrants. Miranda’s Washington Heights is full of characters with big hearts and “sueñitos”—little dreams—that carry them from one day to the next.
“In the Heights” explores what it means to dream of a better life and what it takes to make that dream a reality. Dreaming is hard work, the musical says; doubly so for immigrants, who have to contend not only with their own self-doubt, but also with systemic racism and poverty and convoluted legal processes that drain their time, money, and spirit. By the same token, though, immigrants know how to have a good time. “In the Heights” paints the barrio as a carnival of constant dancing and flirting and eating and drinking, as if to suggest that revelry is the only natural reaction to hardship.
Fittingly, “In the Heights” is a fun movie, full of warm colors and snappy editing and massive song and dance numbers. Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”) imbues the movie with a buzzing energy and a slight but appealing clumsiness, like a partygoer in their sharpest outfit starting to get tipsy. Sometimes the dancers are a little off-center, or spaced out at random, but still they move in perfect unison. They dance in streets and in parks and in swimming pools, even when the power’s out, even when the thermometer hits triple digits. The whole neighborhood comes alive for the festivities; during one number, as the staff and patrons of a beauty salon sing about neighborhood gossip, the mannequin heads on the shelf turn and shake their wigs at every salacious rumor.
For all its good-natured merrymaking, though, the movie falters occasionally in its commentary on current events. It’s not that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s opinions on immigrant rights or racial profiling are objectionable, but by broadening his story, he dilutes it. “We are powerless,” the characters sing during a blackout, but the song goes no further in its thematic explorations than the pun on the word “powerless.” Maybe it’s this diorama-deep commentary, or maybe it’s just the nature of a wide release, but the movie’s central message that we each have the power to make a difference within our local community feels light and inconsequential.
What’s more, the movie doesn’t quite align with the progressive philosophy it tries to embody. Miranda and Chu have faced criticism from the Afro-Latino community for excluding dark-skinned Latinos from the cast, an exclusion that, whether intentional or not, was seen as colorism. Even musically, the movie is shortsighted; the vocal parts for women are all humorless balladry, while the men get the boastful raps and goofy bars. Of course, no movie can encapsulate every element of social progress and respectful representation, and it’s unfair to hold this movie to a higher standard when so many other movies don’t even try. But “In the Heights” weakens itself by trying to bear the standard both for a single, unique neighborhood and for America writ large. His good intentions notwithstanding, Lin-Manuel Miranda can’t have it both ways.
Originally published in The Harvard Press on 6/25/21.