Chicago Review

by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)
January 3rd, 2003

"Chicago"

The club is hopping as Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) comes sauntering in. "You and your sister are on in five minutes" she is told as she goes into her dressing room, washes her blood stained hands and tosses a revolver into a drawer. She goes on stage, alone, as the police gather in the audience, waiting for her to finish her energetic song and dance number. Star-struck Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) watches Velma perform then runs off with a guy who says he can get her name in lights but, it turns out, not the way she thought in the city of crime and corruption, "Chicago."

First time film director Rob Marshall takes choreography genius Bob Fosse's 1975 stage musical and murder thriller and brings it to the big screen in a fast, flashy but somewhat stilted screen rendition of the popular Broadway play. The most impressive thing about "Chicago" the motion picture is the song-and-dance performance by Catherine Zeta-Jones. I have never taken to the beautiful actress in her dramatic acting roles but I was bowled over when she hits the stage with the film's opening "All That Jazz" number, singing and hoofing like she was born to it. She dominates the screen when the music plays.

Renee Zellweger should have kept the pounds that she gained for "Bridget Jones Diary" for her role as vaudeville stage wannabe and murderess Roxie. She is too skinny to be a chanteuse star but gives a game try in the dance numbers and has a not-awful set of pipes. Having the best time of all is Richard Geer as the high priced criminal lawyer, Billy Flynn, a man who has never lost a case for his female clientele. Geer camps it up as the flamboyant celebrity attorney as he pleads Roxie's case in court. The action jumps from his snowing the jury with his fast talk to Billy on stage performing a tap dance in parallel to his courtroom dance. Geer should not give up his day job to become a singing hoofer but he plays his part with gusto.

Queen Latifah, as jail matron Mama Morton, starts off with a bang in her own song and dance number, but the makers cut out a couple of more songs the character has in the stage version which, if she had those tunes, could have garnered award attention. John C. Reilly as Amos Hart is a likable schlemiel, probably too good for wife Roxie. The actor gets to excel in his one dance number, "Mr. Cellophane" about a man so unremarkable that you can see right through him.

The production is sharp, fitting the theme of murderous women with its dark, moody contrasts. The stage numbers are interesting but the film is hampered with rapid fire, music video style editing that are visually stimulating but prevent you from seeing the full scope of the dance numbers. The cameras should have hung back to give the eye the chance to see the dancers as you would on stage. The up-close, fast and furious cutting should be relegated to the short attention span of the MTV generation, not a film as ambitious as "Chicago." The fans of the stage play will, I fear, be disappointed.

"Chicago" is fun and entertaining and does well in its stylized view of the Roaring 20's. The big surprise is Catherine Zeta-Jones. I give it a B-.

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