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Amos Lassen wrote on 03/31/2011:

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” was released in 1985 and is marked by brilliant performances by the three leads, William Hurt (who won the Academy Award for his portrayal of Molina, a homosexual in prison because of immoral behavior), Raul Julia (as Valentin, a political prisoner) and Sonia Braga (in three different roles including the Spider Woman).
The film is about two different souls who turn into each other. The writing is excellent, the acting is exceptional and the story is wonderful. This is a powerhouse of a film which is emotionally draining. From the moment the film begins there is a feeling of frustration and Valentin and Molina who feel this for different reasons send it out to the viewer. They are two ordinary people thrown together by fate in an almost impossible situation and they make the best of it. What was going on around them would have destroyed lesser men as their reality is bleak and yet they find a way to survive. The movie compels despite its slow pace. It is primarily set in a filthy cell in a prison of a never-named Latin American country, Molina, a flamboyant homosexual, shares his escape fantasies with Valentin, an idealistic revolutionary. The stories they tell come from either Molina’s vivid imagination or from Valentin’s struggling past and all of the stories feature a similar woman. As the relationship between the two men grows our sympathy for them increases. The film is a study of relationships.
William Hurt gives an amazing performance as the campy and gay Molina. Raul Julia is the straight man that comes to love and respect him for the human being that he is and he lets go of homophobic attitude long enough to share a moment of tenderness with a gay man who has both come to love him and who decides not to betray him as authorities had hoped he would.
“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is a wonderful look at how two completely different men come to understand one another and the unselfishness of love and how it can transcend sexual preference. The film is about much more than it first appears. It is obviously a metaphor for any dictatorship as dictators will imprison both political dissidents and homosexuals.