I had been looking forward to seeing this film, despite the wretched reviews. After viewing it last night, however, I can understand why so many people (professional critics especially) were disgusted with El Cantante.<br /><br />Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are both capable actors who could have portrayed Puchi and Hector LaVoe as genuine human beings - complex, driven and conflicted - but instead all they're given to work with is mind-bogglingly superficial claptrap, posing as a script, which shows them as nothing more than clichés: she marries the up-and-coming singer who turns out to be a clueless drug addict and he drags her down with him or at least he does his very best to try, blah blah blah. There's not a shred of insight into their characters anywhere to be found. The onstage scenes were good (and I liked the creative way the English translation of the lyrics were displayed on screen), but this is not supposed to be a music video, it's supposed to be a full-length movie. I was not familiar with Hector and Puchi going in, but I know enough to believe they deserved better.