Oscar Winners - Chicago (2002)

Miramax, 2002
Starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifa, and Richard Gere
Directed by Rob Marshall
Music by John Kander; Lyrics by Fred Ebb

We end our Oscar Winners series where we began it, with a pair of ambitious dancers in the Roaring 20's who are hoping to become the next big thing. These girls, however, aren't merely willing to rely on a fiancee or business smarts to get them to the big time - they're ready to literally kill for their chance in the spotlight. How does the tale of two murderesses who hire a shady lawyer to get their names "in the papers" look nowadays? Let's head backstage at a vaudeville theater in the titular Windy City and find out...

The Story: Housewife Roxie Hart (Zellweger) longs for a career on the stage. She thinks Fred Casley (Dominic West), who claims to know the manager of a theater, is her ticket to the big time. She's so angry when she discovers he lied about his connections to get her in bed, she shoots him. Turns out another dancer she'd been admiring at the theater, Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones), is also guilty of murder, having killed her sister and husband when she found them in bed together.

They end up in the infamous Murderess' Row, run by corrupt Mama Morton (Queen Latifa). Morton suggests Billy Flynn (Gere) take Roxie's case. He turns her into a good girl gone bad and makes her the sensation of Chicago. Roxie's desperate to keep her name in the headlines and herself out of the hangman's noose...but while she and Billy may be able to fool the courts and reporter Mary Sunshine (Christine Baranski), they may not be able to keep fooling a public that's craving the next big thing.

The Song and Dance: The original Broadway show debuted in 1975, but ended up being overshadowed by the runaway success of A Chorus Line. Audiences found it too cynical and downbeat at the time, despite several of the songs becoming popular. There were no such problems when it was revived in 1996; if anything, the advent of the internet, and later, social media, that covered celebrities' every move had made the show's points about the fleetingness of fame more relevant than ever.

Zeta-Jones won an Oscar as the amoral Velma Kelly; Queen Latifa and John C. Reilly were nominated for supporting awards as Mama Morton and Roxie's sad-sack husband Amos. Lucy Liu is fun in a cameo as another murderess who killed her lover and his two mistresses, and Gere's having a wonderful time as crafty Billy Flynn. The great costumes and sets do a wonderful job of contrasting the gritty world of the prison and backstage with the glittering, glamorous vaudeville going on in Roxie's head.

Favorite Number: In addition to the big opener "All That Jazz" that introduces us to the show in Roxie's mind and Velma Kelly, two of the film's big dance routines, the sexy "Cell Block Tango" and Gere's "Razzle Dazzle" with the spangled chorus girls, have become nearly iconic today. Latifa and Reilly score with their big solos, "When You're Good to Mama" and the sad-clown "Mr. Cellophane." Gere also gets a good solo, once again with the chorus girls. "All I Care About" makes Billy look like the white knight on his way to Roxie's rescue...but what we actually see reveals a shifty shyster who cares more about his image than the women he's supposed to defend. Zellweger and Zeta-Jones have a great time camping it up for their final dance, "Nowadays."

Trivia: The director of the original Broadway show, Bob Fosse, wanted this to be his next movie musical after the success of Cabaret, but he died before it got far. Interest in the film version was revived after the huge success of the 90's revival. (Which, by the way, is still running, and at press time is the longest-running revival in Broadway history.)

The movie was based on a 1927 play of the same name, which in turn was inspired by two real-life murder cases in the city that writer Maurine Watkins worked on.

Along with Best Picture and Zeta-Jones' performance, the movie won Oscars for sound, editing, costumes, and art direction.

What I Don't Like: For all the "Razzle Dazzle," this is a very dark show, and absolutely not for children. Zellweger is only a so-so singer and dancer, which to tell the truth, works in the film's favor when it becomes quite obvious that Roxie isn't going to get into vaudeville because of her talent. The idea of putting the numbers in Roxie's head can occasionally be confusing, and I do wish it hadn't lead to them cutting the witty "Class" number with Latifa and Zeta-Jones that didn't fit that storyline.

The Big Finale: Brassy, sexy, and utterly amoral, if you can handle that cynical tone, Chicago is a fun ride with some interesting things to say about celebrity and how desperate some people are to get - and keep - those fifteen minutes of fame.

Home Media: As the most recent musical to win an Oscar and one of the movies that revived the genre in the early 2000's, it goes without saying that you can find it pretty much anywhere in almost every format.

DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime

(Oh, and we resume our regularly scheduled programming on Tuesday with two of MGM's most famous musicals in honor of the recently-passed Stanley Donen, starting with Singin' In the Rain.)