Chico & Rita follows Chico, an old and retired Cuban pianist, as he remembers his impossible love with a jazz singer called Rita and his rise and fall as a music performer. Having taken four years to make, Chico & Rita is first and foremost visually mind-blowing. Its animation is as nothing you have seen before and the cinematography, the lights, the angles, the music, just everything related to the technical aspect of this film is absolutely perfect.
But what's best and most refreshing about this film is its old-fashioned love story. In a time where all romantic films try to be as realistic as possible, it seems unthinkable to watch a relationship like this unfold on screen. Following a bolero-like structure, the main characters fall in love as easily as they fall apart, but they never forget each other, having an outdated loyalty that is deserving of such all-time classics as Casablanca or Gone With The Wind, and ending in the brilliant and moving bittersweet final scene.
Jazz music plays a main role in the film and gets to be the third character in what we could call a love triangle between the jazz, Chico and Rita. The two title characters are extremely talented musicians that are sometimes in the position of having to choose between their lover or their musical success and fame. Real jazz performers, such as Charlie Parker or Tito Puente get enjoyable cameos in the film and, practically, all the performances in the film are very delightful and entertaining.
Although the film has some minor elements that prevents it from being a masterpiece, like the appearance near the end of Estrella Morente, they are so insignificant compared to the whole of the film that Chico & Rita is still an exceptional film appealing to an extremely large audience.
Chico & Rita is an animated old-fashioned musical romance with a highly original aesthetic, a both refreshing and outdated love story and sublime original and adapted music.
Rating: 4.5/5.
