Chicago

Chicago

Another Best Picture Winner off the list, this is one of the only films adapted from a Broadway musical that my musical theater friends don't actively complain about. It's also arguably what rebooted the trend of movie musicals, which continues to this day.

I naturally have a chip on my shoulder about this movie because it beat out The Pianist and my favorite Lord of the Rings film (The Two Towers) for Best Picture of 2002, but that's not really the movie's fault so I can shut off this bitter part of my brain. I'm also not familiar at all with the original musical (I only knew "Cell Block Tango" from other theater kids playing it in high school), so I didn't have that context going in either.

Overall this is a pretty silly movie with a couple of really strong elements in it.

The film takes place in the 1920's, and the actors seem to mimic the voice and style of acting that was popular at that time, which comes off as a little goofy and over the top, but that's the tone the movie chooses to take (the only two actors that aren't doing the sort of "nyah, see, nyah" accents are John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah). In the case of Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere this acting style is pretty cheesy and not very believable (Gere in particular is an actor I've never believed for a second, probably because of his dead, soulless, doll eyes (see Matthew Broderick)). However, Catherine Zeta-Jones fully commits to this style and creates an electric, animalistic performance that is actually incredible to watch. Any song with her is a must-watch because of how wild she is when she dances and performs. John C. Reilly is already one of my favorite actors, and he's perfectly pathetic in this as the dumb, cuckolded husband, giving easily the most grounded performance in the film. Queen Latifah is just herself, but that works for her character and she's fun to watch as well.

Where this movie really excels is in its visuals. The production design is fantastic, with all sorts of ridiculously fun sets, make-up, and costumes, and the cinematography captures it all very well. The editing is also solid, with a whole bunch of match cuts that show that the filmmakers were really trying to make something unique and visually engaging and for the most part succeeded.

There's one big part of the storytelling in this film which consistently bothered me, which is the "stage performances" that the movie uses for obvious symbolism. For instance, when Richard Gere is speaking for Zellweger to the press, it cuts to Gere singing with a bunch of ventriloquist dummies. Do you get it what it means? Yeah? You got it immediately? Cool. Enjoy this terrible sequence for five more minutes. Hey, John C. Reilly's kinda like a sad clown, right? Let's have him sing as a sad clown for another five minutes. Hey, Richard Gere's really doing a good job of getting out of trouble in court. Almost like he's tap dancing. Let's show him tap dancing. You get the idea. However, this actually does lead to my favorite sequence in the movie, which is Roxie's big number. Zellweger is on top of her performing game, she wears a great silver dress, and it's just her against a black backdrop as she interacts with mirrors. It's so simple and visually stunning (almost like a stripped-down Busby Berkely number), and it shows the full potential of what a movie-musical can achieve. The Cell Block Tango is the most talked-about scene in the film, and it's a lot of fun, but Roxie captures that truly classic movie-musical feel that I love so much, making it my favorite part.

Everything about the movie is over the top and campy, which works a handful of times, but it's just not really my thing. Anyone doing musical theater of course should check it out if they haven't seen it already, but otherwise there's not very much to get out of it. If anything just check out the Catherine Zeta Jones songs and Roxie, those are what the movie for me.