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Film: The Mambo Kings

In the name of the Mambo, the Rumba, and the Cha-cha-cha.

The Mambo Kings is a 1992 musical drama based on the award-winning novel ''The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love'' by Oscar Hijuelos.

Cesar (Armand Assante) and Nestor Castillo (Antonio Banderas) are two Cuban musicians (Cesar's a singer and the manager, while Nestor plays trumpet and is the songwriter) who are forced to flee Cuba in the 1950's to escape the wrath of a gangster. They go to New York City to live with relatives, and try to break into the music business. Except the clubs are controlled by Fernando Perez (Roscoe Lee Browne), and since Cesar refuses to be under the thumb of a gangster again, the brothers and their band have to struggle. Meanwhile, though Nestor falls in love with Delores Fuentes (Maruschka Detmers), a student, he misses his old girlfriend Maria (Talisa Soto) from Cuba.

Best known for it's Oscar-nominated song "Beautiful Maria of My Soul".

This movie contains examples of:

Adaptation Distillation: The story in the movie only makes up a small portion of the novel; most of the novel takes place years later.
As Himself: Mambo legend Tito Puente.
Break His Heart to Save Him: At the beginning of the movie, Maria goes with a gangster who would kill Cesar and Nestor otherwise. She begs Cesar not to tell Nestor, and for a while, he keeps that promise.
Chivalrous Pervert: Cesar is somewhere between this and The Casanova.
Fake Nationality: Maruschka Detmers, a Dutch actress, plays the Latin-American Delores.
- Also, the Irish-Italian-American Armand Assante as Cesar.
Historical Domain Character: Desi Arnaz (played by Desi Arnaz Jr.) gives the Castillo brothers their big break by having them appear on I Love Lucy.
Large Ham: Cesar.
Anna Maria: He thinks he's the last Coca-Cola in the desert.
Lana: He is, honey.
Love Triangle: Delores falls in love with Nestor, but while he loves her, he's still hung up on Maria. Meanwhile, she also has feelings for Cesar, and he for her, but they never act on them because they don't want to hurt Nestor.
Mood Whiplash: The movie goes back and forth between the exhilaration of the music and the dark turns of the plot, particularly when Nestor cheats on Delores, and when he dies in the car accident.
Time Passes Montage: While Fernando and Evalina are seen dancing, we see the cheap gigs the Mambo Kings and their band are forced to play, such as a bar mitzvah and a birthday party.