Film review: West Side Story
Steven Spielberg’s ravishing remake of the classic 1961 musical

In the early scenes of this “bizarre comedy” from debut director Camille Griffin, we seem to be firmly in “Richard Curtis territory”, said Charlotte O’Sullivan in the London Evening Standard. Keira Knightley stars as Nell, a mother of three who is about to spend Christmas in a “holly bedecked mansion” in the English countryside “with her attractive, sweary and dysfunctional friends”, as well as her “once-doting” husband Simon (Matthew Goode). But as the film progresses, it becomes clear that Knightley and co. are eating, drinking and being merry because they’re facing the apocalypse: a cloud of poisonous gas is sweeping across the world; and to inhale it is to die an agonising death. The only protection from pain? “A government-sponsored suicide pill.” Audiences who went in expecting “cinematic eggnogg” may demand their money back.
“A few good ideas pulsate gently at the heart of the film,” said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail, “but it unfolds like an undergraduate revue sketch stretched well beyond its natural life.” As the cloud approaches, the social politics of the middle-class house party become “almost unbearably shallow and contrived”, and characters are revealed to be “thinner than cheap festive wrapping paper”. They are all “slightly nauseating”, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent, but the performances are quite compelling. Knightley in particular turns in fine work here: her comic talent is underused, but she gleams with “manic perkiness”. Unfortunately, though, as the film slips from satire to “absolute nihilism” it starts to “collapse in on itself” – and becomes simply “grim”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
July 6 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include paying for school lunch by enlisting, and the banality of evil
-
5 biting editorial cartoons about 'Alligator Alcatraz'
Cartoons Artists take on dangerous green things, historical precedent, and more
-
A journey into the deep past on beautiful Arran
The Week Recommends New Unesco Global Geopark played a 'key role' in the birth of modern geological science
-
Jeff in Venice: a 'triumph of tackiness'?
In the Spotlight Locals protest as Bezos uses the city as a 'private amusement park' for his wedding celebrations
-
The Anatomy of Painting: Jenny Saville's 'stunning' retrospective
The Week Recommends Saville's new collection features 'masterpieces' from throughout her career
-
M3GAN 2.0: riotous action sequel to the comedy-horror hit about a killer doll
The Week Recommends A 'ridiculously' entertaining 'hyper-camp mash-up' of Terminator 2 and Mission: Impossible
-
Properties of the week: bright and cheerful houses
The Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, London and Norfolk
-
Shami Chakrabarti picks her favourite books
The Week Recommends The politician and human rights activist shares the polemics that inspired her
-
6 sleek homes for modernists
Feature Featuring a concrete-and-steel home in South Carolina and a renovated 19th-century former carriage house in Pennsylvania
-
The Genius Myth: a 'fresh and unpretentious' book from Helen Lewis
The Week Recommends This 'angry, witty book' by Helen Lewis is a valuable critique of the 'flattering fiction' of genius
-
From Hilde, With Love – the 'moving' story of an accidental revolutionary
The Week Recommends Liv Lisa Fries gives a 'compelling' performance as the soft-spoken heroine.