Starring: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, Queen Latifah, Taye Diggs, Dominic West
Certificate: 12
Genre: Musical, crime
Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Zeta-Jones), Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Sound
Chicago is a musical that features Roxie Hart (Zellweger), a wannabe singer and dancer who is sent to prison for shooting a man she was having an affair with. The story tells of her trial and how she became a public star because of the publicity garnered by her lawyer, Billy Flynn (Gere) as he contorts the truth in order to make her a much more poplar and relatable character.Chicago is a very stylised, with its musical parts often taking place outside of reality in order to show what is happening. This allows for a great juxtaposition between Roxie's experience and her perception of her experience that, like Scorcese's underrated The King Of Comedy, can lead to the ending to become questioned for its validity.
Whilst Zeta-Jones won the oscar for best supporting actress, I would argue that her performance and character are in fact the least interesting. Zellweger's ditzy but ambitious protagonist, Gere's trickster lawyer, Reilly's pathetic husband and Latifah's charismatic gaoler all play much greater roles in the story and leave a greater mark behind once the credits have rolled.
All in all, Chicago is an enjoyable film with glitz and glamour all over the place. It's stylish, it's sexy and has lots of songs that are pleasing to hear.
****Good
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