Starring Jennifer Lopez and Edward James Olmos Directed by Gregory Nava Rated PG, with mild profanity Running time 128 minutes Jack gives this film a rating of 7 out of 10

(March 21, 1997) -- Coal Miner's Daughter meets La Bamba in Selena, the latest Hollywood bio-pic about a singer who overcomes obstacles to achieve a cherished dream of stardom.

In this case, though, mainstream popularity hadn't yet been achieved by the 23-year-old Mexican-American pop singer who was shot down in a Corpus Christi motel in 1995. The South Texas singer had reached the top of the Spanish-language Tejano music world (and had won a Grammy), but was about to launch an English-language CD and mainstream concert tour when she died.

Selena is an upbeat, sentimental saga, written and directed by Gregory Nava (of El Norte and My Family/Mi Familia). Using polish and verve, Nava adapts the flash of a typical Selena performance to the film, employing split screens and swirling images to energize the project.

However, Nava forgot another important tool -- scissors. At 128 minutes, Selena is at least 20 minutes too long.

Fortunately, two entertaining performances bring the title character to life. Jennifer Lopez generates an effervescent and loving Selena, and also moves well on stage, plausibly lip-syncing the singer's music. Earlier in the film, 10-year-old Becky Lee Meza offers a winning portrayal of the young Selena that makes the girl's eventual stardom easy to predict.

Abraham Quintanilla Jr., Selena's father and manager, served as executive producer on the film, which might explain the film's sanitized aura. If there were any negatives in Selena's story, they don't surface here. The film practically canonizes the young woman.

Selena succeeds most when it concentrates on her family life, particularly her loving relationship with her father, portrayed here by Edward James Olmos. Olmos is arguably the day's most consistently brilliant Hispanic actor. (Actually, since the death of Raul Julia, it is probably no longer arguable.) In Selena, Olmos brings great integrity and rich emotion to the portrayal of the singer's father.

A frustrated singer in his own youth, Quintanilla recognizes his daughter's talent early in her life, and focuses the family's efforts on making her a star. Selena's brother and sister are recruited to play the bass and drums, Mom helps Selena design and make costumes, and Dad drives the tour bus.

Life becomes a bit more complicated when a free-spirited guitarist named Chris Perez (Jon Seda) joins the band. Selena and Chris fall in love -- and sneak off to be married. It's an act of rebellion against her stern father -- and the only bit of conflict in the film.

Selena's tragic demise is depicted quickly, almost as a painful afterthought. The singer was gunned down by Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her fan club, after the middle-age woman was questioned about suspicious financial dealings. We are never shown how Saldivar became part of Selena's inner circles -- and the actual murder is shown briefly, through real and recreated TV news footage.

Clearly, the creators of Selena were more interested in making a musical primer for young dreamers. It keeps its focus on the little Corpus Christi girl who was thrilled the people liked to hear her sing, and who wished on the moon that her songs would make her famous.

Thanks to Hollywood, she finally has her wish.