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Chicago (Full Screen Edition) Customer Reviews (64 - 66 of 120 Reviews)

Chicago = Music + Spectacle + 15 Minutes of Fame
As one who is a big fan of the Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930s, I appreciate the slam-bang musical that is CHICAGO. Director Rob Marshall has chosen Al Capone's Chicago as the backdrop for a musical based on a series of court trials of otherwise good women who kill their cheating or otherwise abusive spouses. Catherine Zeta-Jones is Velma Kelly, a brash-talking brunette who kills her sister and husband for having an affair and, without missing a beat, goes back to work singing and dancing up a storm. Watching her perform is Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart, who has just plugged her own lover for lying about a promise to introduce her to a talent agent. While all this shooting is going on, the details of this dancing duo's past is recounted in the oddest of ways. Director Marshall slips the viewer in and out of reality by superimposing song and dance routines that highlight the details of their respective cases. These routines are magnificent and quite carry the viewer along with their sheer kinetic energy. Queen Latifah is the dyke prison guard known as Momma, who has her own show stopping tunes. Richard Gere is the sleazy lawyer Billy Byrne who not only defends Zeta-Jones and Zellweger, but also brags about his never having lost a case. By the time the closing credits roll, the viewer learns how he has managed that little trick. The entire film is an opulent non-stop ensemble of song and dance that masks a core of blatant nihilism. It is no coincidence that Capone's Chicago is the setting. Few cities in American history had been as criminally wide open as Chicago. Capone was but the tip of moral vacuum iceberg through which nearly every character in the movie is more flawed than one cares to see initially. Zeta-Jones kills two people, and her superimposed song routine brags that they had it coming. In prison, she establishes that she is at the top of the inmate pecking order with a barrage of insults to the newly arrived Zellweger, who proves, in turn, that she can give as good as she gets by learning the ropes of the court hustle spectacle from her sleazebag lawyer Gere. In fact, the difference between Zeta-Jones and Zellweger shrinks as the movie progresses, until by the end, except for their divergent hair styles, they are joined at the hip. Gere warns both that fame in Chicago is the most fleeting of ephemera. His warnings come so often that they form a subtext that suggests that even in the raucus world of show business, the end justifies the means. I wonder that after having seen and heard the smashing tunes that form the bulk of CHICAGO, did the viewer ever think of peeking under those tunes to see whether any basic human values got trampled on. I know that I did, and the cumulative glitz and hoopla that mesmerized me for two hours suddenly seemed crudely tarnished.

Adaptation Was Good, But Not Oscar Worthy
The musical story of Roxy Hart's fall and rise made for great Broadway when I saw it. Not being one who normally likes musicals of any stripe (I HATED sitting through 'Rent' but remember loving 'The Wiz' and liking 'Les Miz" a lot), I found 'Chicago' to be pretty darn good. Of course, I did see it while Bebe Neworth was performing...

The movie version, by nescessity, had to add on some dialogue, but not enough to ruin it. The musical numbers were fine. Most of the performances we middle-of-the-road, with Queen Latifa's standing out and Richard Gere's petering out (he was awfully wooden, especially during his numbers).

I know why the Academy chose to nominate this film, as it had to put something up there in what was an otherwise dull movie year (and God knows they'll never let a science fiction film like 'The Two Towers' near a Best Picture Oscar, no matter how much better it is). Most of the nominees had limited runs, and most of the moviegoing audience are still going 'huh?' over 'The Hours' and 'The Pianist'. So hence 'Chicago'.

But it doesn't deserve an Oscar; 'All That Jazz' deserved an Oscar. Oh well, there's always next year...

Great Acting, Singing, Dancing....and All That Jazz!
Chicago, a film adaptation of the Broadway Musical by Fosse, is brilliantly brought to life in this production starring Rene Zellweger, Katherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere. With a supporting cast featuring other Hollywood A-List actors like John C. Reiley, Lucy Liu, and the fabulous Queen Latifah, its no wonder that this movie went on to achieve the pinnacle of fame as it swept its way through the Academy Awards this past year.

The story, set in the roaring 20's Chicago of gangster fame, is the tale of Roxie Hart (Zellweger), an ambitious unknown singer whose hunger for fame and fortune leads her into the arms of a man who promises to get her the connections she needs. Later, when she learns that he is has been leading her to sleep with her, she shoots him in a moment of anger. Her husband, unaware of his wife's extra-marial affairs, takes responsibility for the crime until he learns the other man is actually the same man who recently sold them furniture. Roxy is incarserated, where she meets famed singer and dancer, Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones), who is also in prison for the murder of her husband and her sister.

The musical, which is filmed brilliantly in opposing counter-point of real life incident and elaborately staged jazz song-and dance numbers that narrate the story, is cleverly drawn together, blending musical fantasy with the fascinating story of these women's struggle for fame from inside the "slammer."

Desperate to escape public execution, Roxy implores the assistance of Matron "Mama" Morton (Latifah), the prison headmaster whose corruptability is equal to her authority. She puts Roxy in touch with Billy Flynn (Gere), top criminal lawyer in Chicago, and the man who is already representing Velma, to get her out.

The music is sizzling, sultry, sexy, as are the costumes and the actors that work these numbers. One of the most impressive surprises in this film is that all of the actors sing and dance their own numbers. Catherine Zeta-Jones is dynamic, performing like a veteran of the Broadway stage with a confidence that equals her talent. She is beautiful in the role of Velma, and was perfectly cast. Zellweger and Gere also nail their numbers, bringing a vitality and a sexual tension to their characters that make this movie work as a musical. One of the surprise performances in this production was that of John C. Riley, who plays Amos Hart, Roxy's estranged and dumb-witted husband. He brings a sensitivity and innocence to the performance that gives his character as much vitality as that of any of the larger roles in this film.

Running a little over an hour and a half, this is a fabulous film production of a legendary musical. It is no wonder why this film has had the acclaim that it has. It is sure to dazzle, entertain, an all that jazz....

Scott Kolecki

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