Chicago

To those who have not seen it, it may come as a surprise that the current incarnation of the musical Chicago running on Broadway does not use sets or flashy costumes. The orchestra is seated in risers on stage with the actors, whose sexy onstage attire is uniformly black. Nobody wears anything with any color in it until the play’s finale. This staging makes it perfectly clear who the real stars of the production are: the music and the choreography. So, while the creators of the movie version of Chicago fretted over how best to make the transition from stage to screen, I could not help but wonder what they were making such a fuss about. As long as the music and dancing were in place, who was going to care what they did to it? Well, I will now be the first to admit I was wrong because the extra thought and planning that took so long to bring Chicago to the screen (twenty years plus!) was well worth it. It is the best film of the year.

Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) is a showbiz wannabe with some talent but no connections. After a chance meeting with Fred Cassley (Dominic West) leads to an affair and a promise of a nightclub act, Roxie thinks she’s got it made. However, when Cassley reveals his true intentions, Roxie murders him and is sent to prison. The media frenzy that surrounds her crime does not please Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Having been accused of murdering her cheating husband, Velma is just getting use to the attention a murder arrest can bring. Now with Roxie getting all the heat, what is poor Velma going to do to jumpstart her career? But Roxie got problems, too. Between learning the art of striking deals with prison matron, Mama Morton (Queen Latifah), getting her clueless husband, Amos (John C. Reilly), to take the blame for her, and getting the flamboyant lawyer, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), to take her case, Roxie is in way over her head. The only chance these ladies have is to work together. But how do you do that when you’ve only ever had to look out for yourself?

The main issue the creative team behind the film version of Chicago wrestled with was whether or not audiences could deal with characters that break out into song at the drop of a hat. After all, it’s been more than a generation since the heyday of the American movie musical. Could a formula like that still work? Well, director Rob Marshall, who co-directed the current Broadway run of Cabaret as well as the recent TV adaptation of Annie, and writer Bill Condon (who won an Oscar for writing 1998’s excellent Gods and Monsters) have taken no chances. What they have done is make the musical numbers exist only inside Roxie’s head. They are her method of coping with what has happened to her. And with someone as obsessed with fame as Roxie, why not? It’s a move that pays off beautifully.

Mr. Marshall and Mr. Condon have trimmed some of the musical numbers (including “Class,” a highlight of Act Two between Mama Morton and Velma), but the trims do nothing to harm the film. The core of what makes the musical work so well, the incredible songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb, is left predominately intact, but the numbers are realized differently on film. The stage version of the number “They Both Reached for the Gun” features Flynn as a ventriloquist using Roxie as his dummy to feed the press what they want to hear about her crime. In the film, Roxie is still Flynn’s dummy, but his audience is now a press box filled with puppets knowing manipulated by Flynn’s hand. When Flynn croons “All I Care About” to promote his “undying loyalty to justice” on stage, he is surrounded by a chorus of showgirls. The film version puts a different spin on his number by keeping the dancing girls, but having Flynn do a striptease. And Ms. Zellweger’s slinky version of “Roxie” is filmed in a hall of mirrors, personifying her obsession with herself and her career. It’s a small but juicy touch in a film filled with them.

The performances here are uniformly excellent. Zellweger, who in my opinion can play anything she wants, has a surprisingly sweet singing voice and works hard to make the part her own. Ms. Zeta-Jones is also a revelation. She’s a belter and a hoofer, especially during “All That Jazz” and “I Can’t Do It Alone.” Her great work here makes one wish there was more of Velma onscreen. A move to Broadway would certainly be better for her than those stupid cell phone commercials and Larry King appearances. Ms. Latifah, as Mama Morton, does such an impressive job on “When You’re Good to Mama” that you wish they’d left “Class,” her duet with Zeta-Jones’s Velma that was cut due to the poor response preview audiences gave to the off-color number, in the picture. The film also features good performances in smaller roles from Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs, Colm Feore, and Christine Baranski.

I have two minor problems with the film. First, for an adaptation of a musical that is known for its hot singing and dancing, there is a lot of the former and too little of the latter. Rather than let the camera rest on the actors as they dance, Mr. Marshall has chosen to edit these sequences so much that one can never clearly see the moves. It’s a choice that is distracting at times. The other annoyance is Mr. Gere’s singing voice. His performance as Flynn is perfect, but his insistence on adopting a style of singing akin to Al Johlson is distracting. I kept wondering if it was a gimmick or if that was how he really sounded. It was extremely irritating.

But these are minor complaints. On the whole, Chicago’s move to the big screen is a smashing success. It’s full of surprising fun and appealing performances from a cast who seem to be enjoying the chance to bring something refreshing to the screen. Under Mr. Marshall’s sturdy direction, they’ve done a bang-up job.

Submitted 19 January 03. Posted 29 January 03.