Chicago

Review by Clint Morris

It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do.

It can make old hovel sellable, vintage wheels delectable, and a circus clown more credible.

It can also breathe new life into period music theatre, in this case spectacular-spectacular, Chicago.

Chicago has been in the planning for many years, garnering much interest from many established performers and directors. Unfortunately, it never came off – until now.

Renee Zellweger is Roxie Hart, a go-getting singer-dancer who is charged with murder, but turns her tabloid publicity into show-biz stardom.

Sexy singer-dancer Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is also in jail on similar charges – and she too wants fame from her crime.

Enter Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), a cynical, but ambitious lawyer who decides to take Roxie’s case, and as he explains to Roxie it doesn’t matter whether you're guilty or innocent, but whether or not they like you: "It's all a circus, kid. A three-ring circus. These trials — the whole world — it's all show business."

It’s no surprise Chicago has finally come to fruition now, especially since Bazz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge re-opened the floodgates for the genre. And while this film already has a template and does differ in it’s musical styles – it’s no less a film than Rouge, spectacular in it’s own way, a phenomenon in many rudiments.

Director Rob Marshall has conceived, or should that be choreographed, a terrific melodic that blends slender narrative with show-stopping tunes. The editing is flawless, too, in those transitions from song to scene.

Marshall has made his actors work for their paychecks and then some, and it shows on screen.

While many may already be familiar with the sublime choral talents of Zeta-Jones (her All That Jazz is a knockout), they’ll be more surprised to discover the concealed singing talents of the magnetic Gere, and the elfin Zellweger.

But also good, John C.Reilly, as Zellweger’s husband, performing a magical rendition of “Mr Cellophane”.

Somewhat predictably, the plot and finale doesn’t play as dramatically on the big screen as it did in the theatre, but that’s an endurable blemish considering the sheer magic Marshall’s conceived otherwise here.

4 out of 5

Chicago
Australian release: Thursday January 23
Cast: Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C.Reilly, Queen Latifah, Colm Feore, Taye Diggs, Lucy Liu.
Director: Rob Marshall.
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