Having only recently seen a touring production of Chicago the staged musical (with a dubious casting of Nick Cotton from Eastenders as the lead male) I was eagerly anticipating the screen version. I have seen many film adaptations of musicals and they never quite do them justice. MGM like to cut songs and write their own and make little attempt at choreography. However, Miramax have not followed this trend and Chicago has to be the best film of a musical I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. Marshall only left out one song from the show and I imagine this was to do with timing as it appears on the CD soundtrack.
As for the stars, all 3 leads shine in this film with Renee Zellweger being my favourite for her innocent quality.
All supporting actors and cameos are also impressive with the girls in the Cell Block Tango being so incredibly bendy it has to been seen to be believed!
Basic plot: Chicago, roaring 20s. Roxie Hart is married but has an affair with a man who said he could make her a star. She finds out he lied and shoots him. She is taken to jail where the cons are �looked after� by the big black �Mama� Mordon (Queen Latifa) who for enough bucks can organise major publicity for their campaigns. One of Roxie�s cell mates is Velma Kelly (Zeta Jones), already notorious in the city for the double homicide of her husband and sister. Velma is represented by Billy Flynn (Gere), a well paid lawyer who�s never lost a case. Roxie organises her extremely wet husband Amos (John C. Reilly) to pay for Flynn�s services and the publicity begins. The city�s attention moves towards Roxie and away from Velma until another gorgeous lady (Liu) commits a triple homicide and both are quickly forgotten. Of course that wouldn�t be a good enough Hollywood ending so Roxie concocts more lies to be found not guilty and of course there�s a big musical finale.
The whole story is based around a hunger for stardom and how you�re only as famous as the publicity you get.
Best scenes by far are the Cell Block Tango, where 5 cell mates tell their stories of justified boyfriend murdering, and the press conference when Flynn acts as a ventriloquist for Roxie and Zellweger does the best doll impression I have ever seen.
As a dancer I would have liked to see more of Bob Fosse�s fabulous choreography in chorus numbers but where the film lacks in this it makes up for in scenes that aren�t possible on the stage e.g Richard Gere appearing to be operating all the press on strings, and a huge blacked out, mirrored lot for Zellweger to strut about in during the song �Roxie�. All in all, everything about this film screams quality. Money and time has obviously been spent on every aspect of production and the cast couldn�t have been better. Go see it now! |
