Chicago is a great idea on paper; a sort of theatrical experience of a stage musical delivered right there for the average movie-goer who couldn't tell apart their Phantom's of the Opera to their Joseph's and their Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoats and yes, I'm one of them. But whilst the idea of delivering 'a film that is actually a real life stage show set within a world of a film but maintaining that break that makes us feel we're actually there and watching it' is a good one, it doesn't quite come off as well as it should and it's for a number of reasons.
I have no idea how faithful to the original text Chicago is since I know nothing of the stage show but I doubt the level of sexism, media obsessed characters and false ideas of glory that are present in this film feature so dominantly feature in the original show. There is no doubt that Chicago is a pretty film but how many people will realise that what with all the sexism going on; the cinematography and use of light is brilliant; constantly alluring to us through different colour; colour of costumes, stage lights and backdrops; the use of light to emphasise certain spaces within the stage within the film and set design in general, specially the way the blur between real life and stage narrative is dealt with; a character can be in jail one minute but we sort of know she occupies another space entirely this is also apparent in the courtroom and the press conference scenes.
But whilst the parallel life/scenes concept is cute, one can only take it seriously for so long. The life in question revolves around Roxie Hart (Zellweger) who gets herself into trouble because she has murdered someone but has committed lust in the process by having an affair in the first place; this means our hero is someone who is in trouble through her own unfaithfulness and ignorance that her guy she was having on the side would be able to make her a star bad traits for a protagonist to have: unfaithful and stupid. In fact, by the end of her journey, Roxie has pretty much remained the same: "What about my scoop?" she moans in a frustrated and somewhat dumb manner. But there is more to the narrative; the film is about prison life but told in a musical form; a prison where all the women wear fishnet stockings and revealing clothes, a prison in 1920s America whose chief warden is a black woman and a jail in which the inmates are treated like celebrities.
Yes, celebrities. The idea at the very core of this film, if you're willing to delve deep enough, is who can get their face in amongst the tabloids; who can win over the press and who can be most famous before they are sentenced to death. It's the idea that something so serious as murder and jail and death sentences can be treated in such a careless and colloquial manner that is the problem here; it is nothing new to America since people will remember Ted Bundy defending himself in court and making a media circus out of everything but he was a psychotic serial killer who fought to the very end; with himself, the law, the media and everyone; Roxie on the other hand is a dumb, loose, un-engaging floozy whom none of us would give ten seconds of our time to in real life. But then again, I doubt many people would complain since they get to see extensive shots of legs, stockings, crotches and even the chests of the girls that inhabit the jail I mentioned; there is one such shot in which there are several of them lined up in a row of windows backlit with light of the magenta tone, looking uncannily like how prostitutes in the Amsterdam red-light district are advertised.
But that's the film's main problem; it is sure it is sexist yet remains well shot and beautifully choreographed but it is not sure whether it is a film or a recorded stage show, indeed the jumps may be Roxie's loose psychosis flipping between real life and her imagination of her dream: to be a premiere singer but there is no evidence to suggest she is psychologically unstable and there are numbers that do not involve her. Onto those; the songs are good fun and somewhat catchy but they contain other meanings: Amos Hart (Reilly), Roxie's husband, sings about everyone looking right through him as he imitates Charlie Chaplin who of course, for the best part of his career, was inaudible due to the silent era. The symbolism of lawyer Billy Flynn (Gere) controlling the media at the press conference is put across via puppets on strings representing the journalists but this is an obvious analysis.
Chicago may be a classical Hollywood musical for the contemporary era; a feat of visualisation and colour over decent character progression and interesting, realistic narrative but it works to a certain degree. Roxie may finish the film how she began it and I wonder if, by the time she's performing the big number at the end, if she even remembers the murder; the jail sentence; the manipulation of the media and the courtroom episodes because if she doesn't then she has failed and the film has been a waste of time. But despite failing as a logical and realistic picture, Chicago succeeds as a musical gone nuts; an explosion of energy and song similarly to Moulin Rouge!, which was really a basic love triangle narrative, Chicago does nothing to big expectations except let them down.
I have no idea how faithful to the original text Chicago is since I know nothing of the stage show but I doubt the level of sexism, media obsessed characters and false ideas of glory that are present in this film feature so dominantly feature in the original show. There is no doubt that Chicago is a pretty film but how many people will realise that what with all the sexism going on; the cinematography and use of light is brilliant; constantly alluring to us through different colour; colour of costumes, stage lights and backdrops; the use of light to emphasise certain spaces within the stage within the film and set design in general, specially the way the blur between real life and stage narrative is dealt with; a character can be in jail one minute but we sort of know she occupies another space entirely this is also apparent in the courtroom and the press conference scenes.
But whilst the parallel life/scenes concept is cute, one can only take it seriously for so long. The life in question revolves around Roxie Hart (Zellweger) who gets herself into trouble because she has murdered someone but has committed lust in the process by having an affair in the first place; this means our hero is someone who is in trouble through her own unfaithfulness and ignorance that her guy she was having on the side would be able to make her a star bad traits for a protagonist to have: unfaithful and stupid. In fact, by the end of her journey, Roxie has pretty much remained the same: "What about my scoop?" she moans in a frustrated and somewhat dumb manner. But there is more to the narrative; the film is about prison life but told in a musical form; a prison where all the women wear fishnet stockings and revealing clothes, a prison in 1920s America whose chief warden is a black woman and a jail in which the inmates are treated like celebrities.
Yes, celebrities. The idea at the very core of this film, if you're willing to delve deep enough, is who can get their face in amongst the tabloids; who can win over the press and who can be most famous before they are sentenced to death. It's the idea that something so serious as murder and jail and death sentences can be treated in such a careless and colloquial manner that is the problem here; it is nothing new to America since people will remember Ted Bundy defending himself in court and making a media circus out of everything but he was a psychotic serial killer who fought to the very end; with himself, the law, the media and everyone; Roxie on the other hand is a dumb, loose, un-engaging floozy whom none of us would give ten seconds of our time to in real life. But then again, I doubt many people would complain since they get to see extensive shots of legs, stockings, crotches and even the chests of the girls that inhabit the jail I mentioned; there is one such shot in which there are several of them lined up in a row of windows backlit with light of the magenta tone, looking uncannily like how prostitutes in the Amsterdam red-light district are advertised.
But that's the film's main problem; it is sure it is sexist yet remains well shot and beautifully choreographed but it is not sure whether it is a film or a recorded stage show, indeed the jumps may be Roxie's loose psychosis flipping between real life and her imagination of her dream: to be a premiere singer but there is no evidence to suggest she is psychologically unstable and there are numbers that do not involve her. Onto those; the songs are good fun and somewhat catchy but they contain other meanings: Amos Hart (Reilly), Roxie's husband, sings about everyone looking right through him as he imitates Charlie Chaplin who of course, for the best part of his career, was inaudible due to the silent era. The symbolism of lawyer Billy Flynn (Gere) controlling the media at the press conference is put across via puppets on strings representing the journalists but this is an obvious analysis.
Chicago may be a classical Hollywood musical for the contemporary era; a feat of visualisation and colour over decent character progression and interesting, realistic narrative but it works to a certain degree. Roxie may finish the film how she began it and I wonder if, by the time she's performing the big number at the end, if she even remembers the murder; the jail sentence; the manipulation of the media and the courtroom episodes because if she doesn't then she has failed and the film has been a waste of time. But despite failing as a logical and realistic picture, Chicago succeeds as a musical gone nuts; an explosion of energy and song similarly to Moulin Rouge!, which was really a basic love triangle narrative, Chicago does nothing to big expectations except let them down.