Chicago (2002)

A year after Baz Lurmann's wonderous musical Moulin Rouge was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, we have Rob Marshall's Chicago, an even better movie with even more Oscar nods (13), including a well-deserved nomination for Best Picture. But while Moulin Rouge's chances at taking home the Best Picture of the Year honor were marred by the great critical success of In the Bedroom, Gosford Park, and A Beautiful Mind (which ultimately received the award), and the box office sensation of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Chicago is looking like the frontrunner here, receiving as much (if not more) critical admiration as its partners in the Best Picture category (Gangs of New York, The Pianist, The Hours, The Lord of Rings: The Two Towers). Paired with the success that Moulin Rouge has seen upon its DVD release, Chicago may be the movie to give the screen musical its official revival.

The movie, based on the 1975 stage musical by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb, is set in thirties-era Chicago and is the story of Roxie Hart (Renče Zellweger). Roxie is cheating on her poor, dim-witted husband, Amos (John C. Reilly) with a furniture salesman named Fred Casely (Dominic West). Fred keeps telling Roxie that he has connections to Vaudeville, that he can make her a star. Unfortunately for Roxie, Fred just told her he had connections so that he could get her in bed with him. When Roxie finds this much out, she is devastated, and shoots Fred to death in a fit of rage.

At first, Amos takes the rap so as to keep his wife from having to do jail time. Then he finds out who the corpse belongs to. He is shocked that the dead man is Fred, the friendly furniture salesman. "My wife knows him," he cries, dumbfounded, "He gave us ten percent off!" Amos is so mad that Roxie is two-timing him that he gives her up to the police and she is taken into custody for cold-blooded murder. In prison, Roxie meets Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who has become a celebrity for murdering her sister and adulterous husband after finding them in a compromising position. (Velma assists some other man-killing inmates in an electric performance of "Cell Block Tango")

Velma is Chicago's favorite homicidal vixen, but after Roxie's little murder of her own, it seems she may steal Velma's thunder. Things get worse when Amos gets lawyer extraordinaire Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) to represent Roxie on trial. Flynn says that he can get just about anybody off the hook for just about anything (He uses one of the film's best song-and-dance numbers to describe his method: "Give 'em the old Razzle-Dazzle"). He is currently representing Velma, but lets her case get postponed so that he can use his time to the benefit of Roxie, Chicago's new favorite "jazz killer." However, as more murderous vixens make Chicago's headlines, Roxie must fight to keep her lawyer working exclusively for her.

Rather than attempting to modernize Chicago or trying to make it more like an old-fashioned Hollywood musical, director Rob Marshall has the musical numbers take place in the mind the Roxie character, as a way to keep the musical on the stage, where it originated, and to further examine Roxie's aspirations of becoming a stage starlet. The audience remains a character in Marshall's adaptation, something that is not so surprising when you learn that Marshall was originally a stage director (Chicago is his feature film debut). The musical numbers are made all the more enjoyable by the fact that the actors do all their own singing and dancing—-and do it surprisingly well. Catherine Zeta-Jones began her career as a stage dancer, and is able to recall those days with several amazing numbers throughout the film (notably the movie's opening number, "All That Jazz"). Renče Zellweger is not quite as good, but delightful nonetheless in her challenging dance sequences. Richard Gere's singing is better than his dancing, but not to say that his dancing is shabby. That is not at all the case. He is exceptional, especially when we see him do a tap-dancing number. Queen Latifah plays Matron "Mama" Morton, has a brilliant show-stopping number entitled "When You're Good to Mama."

John C. Reilly is also a show-stopper with his graceful performance of "Mr. Cellophane." Reilly was one of the many things that drew me to Chicago in the first place. He is one of the most often-used supporting actors in movies today, appearing in three other major motion pictures last year (The Good Girl, The Hours, Gangs of New York), two of which share Chicago's honor of a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Reilly is not only a frequent worker, but he does his job well. His performances in such films as Hard Eight (1996), Magnolia (1999), and The Good Girl (2002) show a talented, versatile actor with a good eye for great material. With Chicago, Reilly receives his first Academy Award nomination (his nomination is, of course, for Best Supporting Actor). Not only is his performance in Chicago worthy of an Oscar, but he should be recognized by the Academy for his brilliant body of work to date.

The outcome of this year's Oscar race is a tough one to predict. With so many critically-praised movies in the Best Picture category, it is hard to tell whether the academy will give deserving honors to the upbeat, shimmering Chicago, or the heavy drama of The Hours and Gangs of New York will win the voters over (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is an unlikely contender, considering the competition and the fate of its predecessor, and The Pianist is a very dark horse). However, the way it is looking right now, Chicago may be the first musical in 34 years to take home Oscar's greatest honor (the last one being 1968's Oliver!). With these great possibilities, it's good to know that the odds are in favor of a true masterpiece.

Back to Filmdog

Copyright © 2002 Fishdog Fisher