I’ll just say it right off: If you are a fan of Broadway musicals, I’ll bet you’ll totally love Chicago. It is glamorous, has great costumes, finger-snapping song-and-dance scenes, witty banter, and a fine-looking cast who are obviously having a good time. If you are not a fan of musicals, Chicago will merely leave you a bit exhausted and glassy-eyed, though still entertained.
The plot is a rather thin one, designed as just a basic framework to allow the characters to burst into song, one after another after another. Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger) is a so-so talented moll who want to break into show business to be like her favorite star Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Coincidentally, both Velma and Roxie end up in the same prison for crimes of passion, and the two find themselves vying for attention and sympathy of the press via the workings of ham-fisted lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). Also throw in the characters of Amos (John C. Reilly) as Roxie’s dim auto-mechanic husband, and Mama (scene-stealing Queen Latifah), the matronly-yet-saucy prison warden, and you’ve got a surprisingly talented group of singers and hoofers.
I, for one, am not a much of a musical-goer and had not seen the stage version of Chicago, so when the first big prison tune unfolded with the women stripping down to fashionably saucy lingerie to belt out their reasons for being thrown into the slammer, I was a bit confused. As they grinded against chairs and their lovers (brought in for storytelling purposes), it felt almost like a women-in-prison movie. But then I realized that Chicago was originally a stage show (which it always feels like), and I just accepted that to keep an audience entertained, you have to have not just glitz and glamour, but a lot of skin (at the expense of anything even closely related to reality).
Renée Zellweger surprisingly steals the movie with her eyelash-batting, manipulative, and determined Roxie. She is always a hoot, and is more than able in her song and dance scenes… though I think she is looking a bit too muscular and sinewy to pass as 1920s flapper. Richard Gere is perfectly hammy, and has a singing voice that reminded me of that retro-throwback song “Puttin’ on the Ritz” from the 80s (anyone else remember the one-hit wonder “Taco”?)— in other words, his nasally, somewhat flat voice was perfect. But Catherine Zeta-Jones… Well, she certainly gets an “A” for effort. She sings fine, she dances well, and she sure is gorgeous. But did she notice that this was, for all practical purposes, a comedy? She just gives off the air of trying too hard, as though if she got all the songs and steps right, the other kids would like her. She just didn’t give off the effortless “va-va-voom” that the role required.
“Chicago” is fine entertainment, and should be taken as nothing but that. You won’t be moved to tears (like with “Moulin Rouge”), or be challenged by what you see (like with “Cabaret” or “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”)… but you’ll be tapping your foot and smiling, and it will make you forget about the real world for a couple of hours. And that’s OK.
Luanne Brown is on leave this month. Linda Gwilym is movie editor for the Seattle based film website, moviepie.com.
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