Faist’s Riff coils and pulses with frustrated potential, James Dean without self-pity. Elgort could have been replaced with anyone, to more powerful results the question is why wasn’t he? Zegler’s sweet soprano and doe eyes are winning, but her lack of gravitas is exacerbated by the charisma vacuum of her co-star. The star-cross’d lovers fall equally flat. The even-larger New York Philharmonic removes both stage precision and Hollywood romance, flattening rhythms to karaoke tracks. Bernstein famously disliked the 1961 film’s orchestration – more than twice the instruments than his intended Broadway pit. Spielberg pulls from both the stage musical (the song order, the uncensored-yet-still-50s lyrics) and the 1961 film that won ten Oscars (“America”) to create a film with a tremendous plot hole from one spectacular mis-staging. The result is a West Side Story that does not know who it is for – the most timeless love story slavishly attached to the time and place of its creation. Unfortunately, Kushner’s script hammers the same angles relentlessly and soberly, removing the nuance and rapid crackle that made the musical and first screen adaptation timeless. Opening on gentrifying demolition and capturing a changing neighbourhood in its dialogue-free opening dance number, West Side Story paints the dividing but all-too-similar challenges facing first- and second-generation immigrants. The social, economic, and cultural stakes for these teenagers take centre stage in Spielberg’s vision of the classic.

“This is a social experiment!” the peppy school counselor cries, hoping the Jets and Sharks will put aside their war for one dance.

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