There are two worlds in director Bill Condon's adaptation of "Kiss of the Spider Woman," one bright and technicolor, the other dark and dingy. It's the full color universe that sings while the other drags everything around it down.

In an Argentine prison cell in 1983, Valentín Arregui (Diego Luna) is locked up for his role in attempting to overthrow the country's military dictatorship. He's given a new cellmate in Luis Molina (one-named performer Tonatiuh), a window dresser doing time on public indecency charges, who's being used by the prison warden (Bruno Bichir) to try to extract inside information from Valentín.

These two are oil and water. But the hardened Valentín begins warming to his new cellmate as Luis details to him his favorite Hollywood musical, which stars his beloved screen siren, Ingrid Luna (Jennifer Lopez).

Lopez appears in the movie within the movie, and she radiates star power like a classic screen beauty. Luna and Tonatiuh also appear in this fanciful alternate reality, playing versions of their characters, glammed up like characters in a '50s musical.

These scenes have a lovely artifice about them, celebrating Hollywood's yesteryear, set to songs by songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb. It's every time we go back to the real world that "Spider Woman" loses its momentum; those scenes seem somehow more like a set than the ones taking place on the big, splashy soundstages.

"Kiss of the Spider Woman" is based on the 1993 Broadway musical, which was adapted from Manuel Puig's 1976 novel; 1985's non-musical "Kiss of the Spider Woman," also adapted from Puig's novel, was a best picture nominee and netted William Hurt a best actor Oscar in the role of Luis Molina.

Writer-director Condon, an Oscar winner for his "Gods and Monsters" screenplay, directs the musical scenes with flair and flourish, and they pop off the screen. Lopez especially shines in a role that makes expert use of her skill set as a singer and dancer, and she glides across the screen with elegance and grace. It's the kind of role she was born to play.

Tonatiuh, too, is fully committed to a role that shows his depth as a performer; he's at turns raw, emotional, funny, charming and dashing. "Kiss of the Spider Woman" is a tribute to storytelling as a means of escape and the power of our imaginations, but it never quite finds its footing in the real world.

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'KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN'

Grade: C+

MPA rating: R (for language, sexual content and some violence)

Running time: 2:08

How to watch: Now in theaters

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