Movie Review

Chicago

Chicago is a movie that literally everyone but me has enjoyed.

While the fact that jazz doesn?t always float my boat and that musicals don?t always work with me may place my opinion on the biased side, my theory has been that if the movie?s well put together, it shouldn?t matter.
My problem with Chicago starts with the very beginning stretch of the film. The story opens as Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is doing her singing and dance act on stage after rushing in at the last second; in the audience is Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger), whose dream is be on stage like Velma. Soon, Roxie shoots her boyfriend in anger, which later results in an intense courtroom scene where she must be proven innocent of the crime, with Velma also on trial for murder.

I?ve been told that the movie adaptation is pretty close if not exactly proportional to the actual musical production of Chicago; even so, this film has defects that bothered me immensely. My problem throughout the entire movie was never establishing attachment to characters. Velma is a stuck up persona in her celebrity world, with Roxie simply a woman who wants to get her big break on stage and get famous.

The film rides on these vague character outlines throughout the duration, letting the actors? presence stand as the sympathy level when it should be their characters themselves making that distinction. A lot of moviegoers have found these personas to be entertaining, but I simply saw the production as just another average episode of Karate Kid with the underdog needing their big comeback. Even with Richard Gere and John C. Reilly in solid supporting positions, Chicago never rose up to be anything worthwhile to me.

Chicago has gotten praise for attacking politics and courtroom procedures in a comedic angle, but as with many of Hitchcock?s movies, themes and messages only go so far with me ? that legendary filmmaker has numerous films with the same basic story but different morality tales/messages to convey. After a while, some Hitchcock movies can get old, as sometimes the themes are the only differentiation factor between the stories. With Chicago, my argument is rather relevant ? its tactic is to present ideas and to prove points but to use the classic underdog outline to wove around the lessons.

Considering I never cared whether Roxie ever got her stage moment, nor what happened as a result of the court scenes, the film plain and simple did not work on me. The film has a lot of energy to it, but not my preferred type of charisma; like a lot of musicals, music bombards the screen in attempt to excite the tone, but I?m not the type that immediately gets excited at the sight of jazz. There are jazzy tunes that definitely work for me, but none of which are involved in this production.

Though I didn?t really enjoy Chicago, props have to go where they?re deserved ? director Rob Marshall does a very good job at executing the musical numbers, as they are obviously very challenging to pull off, and the singing talents of Zeta-Jones, Zellweger, and John C. Reilly are right on. Despite the directing end of Chicago being bright, the story just doesn?t deliver for me, with the character breakdowns being too vague and stereotypical to invest proper involvement. Though I am a black sheep on this one, I felt that Chicago was one of the most over-rated films of 2002.

DVD Features:
- Deleted Musical Numbers "Class" Performed by Catherine Zeta-Jones & Queen Latifah
- Behind the Scenes Featurette
- Director and Screenwriter Feature Commentary
- French Language Track
- Spanish Subtitles
- Widescreen

Audio Features:
- (English) Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
- (English) DTS 5.1 Digital Surround Sound

Lee's Grade: C+

A	0.4%
B	30.0%
C	61.7%
D	8.0%
F	0.0%