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movie review: Chicago
2003-01-03 So the G-man and I saw Chicago while we were away on vacation. I notice that it still is not playing in our neck of the woods, for reasons I can�t fathom. Sometimes I wonder about the rationale behind the selection of films that make it to our local multiplex. There are six screens in this town, and at any given time, at least two of them will be playing children�s movies. Also, sometimes they will take up two screens with the same movie, like when the newest Harry Potter movie opened. That was a bonus, because it fulfilled both the �two kids� movies� and the �waste precious screens with redundancy� rules that Famous Players seems to embrace. OK, enough ranting. Anyway, we saw Chicago and I must say I enjoyed it. It wasn�t the best movie musical I�d ever seen, but it was engaging and entertaining. The story is set in the 1920s and revolves around three main characters: Roxie Hart, an aspiring showgirl who is on trial for the murder of her jerk of a lover; Velma Kelly, a successful showgirl who is on trial for the murder of her husband and sister; Billy Flynn, a slick, corrupt lawyer who�s never lost a case for anyone who could afford his $5000 fee. Also featured are �Mama� Morton, the matron of the women�s prison where Roxie and Velma are on death row, and Amos, Roxie�s husband. The story�s dramatic tension stems from not only the suspense of whether Roxie and Velma will be convicted of murder, but also the rivalrous relationship between the two women as they vie for the media�s attention as glamourous jazz murderers. The songs were catchy, there was humour and suspense, and the dance numbers were quite impressive in terms of choreography. I certainly never imagined I�d see Richard Gere sing, dance, and remove his clothes, but he does a serviceable job. Apparently he has a background in musical theatre, and his part here is fun and breezy enough that it doesn�t matter that he doesn�t have the strongest voice. Renee Zellweger was pretty good too; her voice was surprisingly sweet, and even though she�s not the best singer or dancer, that makes sense for the role. Her character, after all, is only an aspiring showgirl. Catherine Zeta-Jones, however, blew me away as Velma Kelly. She sang well, looked great, and I thought she really inhabited the part. Queen Latifah was also totally amazing. That woman has a terrific set of pipes. She also has an amazingly large chest, which was very distracting when she was singing �When You�re Good to Mama.� I was sure she was going to pop out of her costume. Finally, John C. Reilly was his usual excellent self. He is so good at playing a sad sack. In fact, his role as Amos kind of reminded me of his character in The Good Girl, where he plays Jennifer Aniston�s dopey husband whom she ends up cheating on. His role in the movie isn�t that big, but he brings a real sense of pathos to his rendition of �Mr. Cellophane.� Although Chicago is set in the Roaring Twenties, the themes in the movie were surprisingly modern, or perhaps I should say timeless. Really, it�s all about people�s greed for celebrity, no matter what the means are to that end. At first, Velma�s the glamourous darling of the Chicago media, but when she faces competition from Roxie, she becomes desperate and vicious. Meanwhile, all Roxie can think of while she�s in jail is how wonderful the attention is, and she doesn�t realize that the public�s affections are fickle, or that she faces the very real possibility of being hanged for what she�s done. The movie also satirizes the way that the media can be manipulated and turned to one�s advantage, especially in the song �We Both Reached For The Gun� (I loved the choreography for this song; it portrays Flynn as a ventriloquist, Roxie as his dummy, and Chicago�s newspaper men and women as marionettes). The movie also highlights the inequity in the justice system. I found it especially interesting that the one woman who is probably innocent, a Hungarian woman who can�t speak English except to say �Uh-uh, not guilty!� is the only one of the women on Death Row who is hanged during the movie. Overall, I found that Chicago had a very good cast, interesting story and managed a creative execution of scenes that would be difficult to carry off in a modern movie (I especially liked the way the song and dance sequences were mostly presented as metaphorical figments of the characters� imaginations). Although I haven�t seen it on stage, I suspect the live version probably has that little extra something that is difficult to bring to life on the screen. That said, Chicago was an engrossing way to spend 113 minutes, and I didn�t begrudge the theatre my $8.50. Extra items of interest for Canadians: Colm Feore, the Canadian actor who has played both Glenn Gould and Pierre Trudeau, has a minor role as the chief of police. Fun fact #2: if we were going for truth in advertising, the title of the movie would be Toronto. Posted by polarcanuck at 3:12 p.m.
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