dir Rob Marshall, scrpl Bill Condon, cin Dion Beebe, ed Martin Walsh
“This trial…the whole world…it’s all show business.” – Billy Flynn (Richard Gere)
People seem prenatally disposed to either loving musicals or to hating them. I suppose it’s the absurdity of spontaneously breaking into song that puts people off. I don’t really know, as I’ve always loved musicals. On some level all cinema is absurd, musicals just expound on the fantasy.
Winner of the 2002 Academy Award for Best Picture, Chicago tells the story of two women, Roxie Hart (Zellweger) and Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones) who have murdered the cheating men in their lives. Each hires flashy lawyer Billy Flynn (Gere) to craft their legal defenses. Along the way there are lots of catchy tunes about adultery, jailhouse kickbacks and show business.
How you feel about Chicago probably depends a lot on how you feel about musicals. Or maybe not. My wife usually doesn’t care for musicals but felt somewhat differently about Chicago largely because of the way it was filmed.
Though the film takes place in the real world—that is to say on realistic sets designed to resemble 1920s Chicago—when the musical numbers begin the scene shifts to a theatrical stage, as a bandleader (Diggs) introduces each performance. Rather than obscure its theater roots, Chicago embraces them. Because it does not take itself too literally—or seriously—for that matter, it’s easier to just go with the flow and enjoy the performances.
The Kander and Ebb songs are catchy, and the performances are uniformly excellent. Director Rob Marshall also served as choreographer on the film, and in addition to quite literally staging the songs, delivers some fantastic set pieces. My favorite, the imaginative We Both Reached For The Gun, has Billy Flynn speaking for Roxie Hart as a ventriloquist dummy, and manipulating the press like puppets.
Richard Gere was surprisingly good as Flynn. But, as much as I enjoyed his work, I couldn’t help but wonder about the original Broadway performance. On the stage, Flynn was portrayed by Jerry Orbach, best known as wisecracking cop Lenny Briscoe on Law & Order. I am so familiar with Orbach as an world weary, alcoholic tough guy, that I’d love to have seen his take on the theatrical flim-flam artist Flynn.
Chicago is well-acted and produced. I’m not sure it’s worthy of the Best Picture moniker, particularly when compared to the other nominated films in 2003, but if you enjoy musicals I expect you’d have fun with this one. It doesn’t break any molds and isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but it is solidly entertaining.