Film Review of Chicago
Year: 2002 Reviewer: Chris Docker
Why don't they make big scale song-and-dance movies like they used to, with stars like Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland - and all those fantastic choreography effects with lots of mirrors and scores of swirly dancers making wonderful patterns beneath overhead cameras?
One of the reasons is that there aren't any big scale song and dance stars. That, for better or worse, was obviously not going to stop Director/Choreographer Rob Marshall who, with lots of fast editing manages to produce an old-fashioned classic with modern-day razzamatazz. There are even one or two professional dancers in the film, mostly wonderfully underused and, as the film is nearly *all* song and dance, the high-calibre actors in the shape of Gere, Zellwegger and Zeta-Jones don't get much chance to display their talents to the full. Catherine Zeta-Jones is something of a saving grace though as she not only injects some realistic character portrayal into this piece of high-powered celluloid but can actually dance and sing.
Theatrical mise en scene devices have transferred superbly to film, leaving the audience with more time to relax and enjoy the spectacle without having to worry about figuring out the story (which on stage can seem overly complicated). The action in this 1920s drama is mirrored and intercut with song and dance routines that dramatise those very same events. This is done so well it is almost like having the dialogue in one ear and the song version in the other. We follow the larger than life story of showbiz wanna-be (Zellwegger/Roxie) who kills her no-good bit-on-the-side and then, with the help of adoring husband, persuades fast-talking lawyer Gere to get her off the hook. Providing her with a convincing note of jealousy is an established nightclub singer, Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones), who has been incarcerated for bumping off her hubby. Whilst the plot lacks substance (as many stage musicals do) it makes up for it with a script that gets plenty of laughs and some dazzlingly colourful scenes.
In the closing credits, the audience is reassured that 'Richard Gere's singing and dancing is performed by Richard Gere, Renée Zellweger by Renée Zellweger . . . ' etc - nice to know - and we obviously needed the reassurance - but what do the equally prominent stand-ins do then?
Rob Marshall has put together some really beautiful scenes for this film, and already had the hype of a long-running and successful stage show, a great score and a sparkling adapted screenplay. Unlike the closest rivals for dance movies of recent years, such as Strictly Ballroom, he decided to place his bets on known movie stars rather than appropriate dancing talent: do enough takes and patch together the best shots with frequent editing cuts and lo and behold - even Richard Gere can tap dance like Fred Astaire! Well. . . not quite. Not by quite a long shot actually. But will audiences care? Probably not.
There is not going to be another Top Hat or Easter Parade or Singing in the Rain while movies like Chicago do so well, but in piecing together the excellent elements that can be easily manufactured in today's Miramax-Weinstein bankability we at least have the pleasure of watching a decent fake.
Rating: 7/10
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