Chicago

Rating: 5/5

In a dazzling collection of dance and song, Chicago is one of my personal favorite musical to film adaptations.

Amidst the 1920's, Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is a star amongst the Chicago nightclub scene. Her act comes to an abrupt end when she is arrested for the murder of her stage partner/sister and her husband. The same night, Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) is out at Velma's club with the man she's having an affair with, Fred Casely (Dominic West). Roxie is dreaming of a life on the stage, and Fred promises her he can get her there.

A short time after the night of Velma's arrest, Roxie is at her home with Fred Casely, and he announces to her that he lied about his show business connections in order to get into bed with her. Enraged at this new information, Roxie grabs a gun from her dresser drawer then shoots and kills Casely. At first, her husband Amos (John C. Reilly) attempts to cover for Casely's death, but when he learns of her affair, he breaks the facade and Roxie is taken off to jail. It is not long before Roxie learns the ways of life in prison, and like Velma Kelly, is able to use her incarceration to her professional advantage.

Turning an acclaimed Broadway show into a film can sometimes be a miss, but Chicago is most certainly a hit. It can't be easy to take a story that was intended for stage and adapt it to the screen, and Chicago may be more challenging than some. There is a lot of juxtaposition between the real life jail sequences and the fantasy show business ones. The film makes these transitions seamless, having the flashy dream world and the drab reality become a perfect blend of pizzaz and drama.

A common trend in the modern musical, is casting actors who aren't necessarily known to be singers. Sometimes this works, other times not so much. Thankfully, Chicago is a case where the risks taken on the cast paid off; most notably being Catherine Zeta-Jones and John C. Reilly. Zeta-Jones is able to nail the jazz-baby look and voice, and really brings Velma to life. Reilly's character is perhaps the only decent person in the entire story, and is sadly the one who suffers the most grief. His song, "Mister Cellophane" is not only very emotional, but is probably one of the only times Amos gets any of the sympathy he deserves, and it's from the audience.

What Chicago does that is a bit unique in comparison to other like minded films, is uses the editing as part of its' choreography. This technique can be seen during the song "the Cell Block Tango". Instead of just having the camera follow the dancers, the cuts go to the beat of the music, and adds a brilliant element to the scenes entirety. In addition to its' editing, what makes Chicago such an excellent film is the visuals. In accordance with the its' stage source material, the movie uses color and shadow to paint the backdrop of its' song and dance sequences, creating silhouettes throughout the scenes. By doing so, the film achieves the rare accomplishment of presenting a movie musical that really feels like a stage performance.

Chicago is one of the first filmed musical adaptions that I can remember seeing, and I have grown more and more fond of it throughout the years. Though some may disagree, I personally feel that this film was incredibly well deserving of it's numerous Academy Award wins.

2003 Winner Best Picture- Chicago

2003 Winner Best Actress in a Supporting Role- Catherine Zeta-Jones

2003 Winner Best Art Direction-Set Direction- Johny Myre and Gordon Sim

2003 Winner Best Costume Design- Colleen Atwood

2003 Winner Best Film Editing- Martin Walsh

2003 Winner Best Sound- Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella, and David Lee