A near perfect adaptation of the Broadway smash featuring an all-star cast who somehow all do their own singing and dancing.
One of the very Broadway crossovers in recent memory to actually do its job and entertain, and boy, does it ever! Chicago sucks you in at minute one and you don't really come up for air until a half hour has passed. Now thats a good movie. Musicals, theater etc are hardly my cup of tea, and Hollywood's opium dream renditions are even less in my scope of enjoyment. Why Chicago works where most of them have flopped utterly, I am not sure but would have to bet its down to direction. Chicago's song and dance segments are cut MTV style, but, Marshall seems to have almost perfected this technique to somehow capture the in-theater dramatic 'zowie' feeling that almost never makes it from stage to screen. While many argue Chicago owe its success at the Oscars to the drubbing Moulin Rouge took (quite deservedly) the year before, I happen to disagree and believe that for once the Academy actually got it right. The cast is fantastic. Sure you can nitpick about Gere being too nasally and too Gere, and maybe Zellwegger's drunken bridesmaid dancing could have used a couple more takes, but the final product even with those bizarre ingredients is one of the most enjoyable experiences to come out of Hollywood, maybe ever?
One of the very Broadway crossovers in recent memory to actually do its job and entertain, and boy, does it ever! Chicago sucks you in at minute one and you don't really come up for air until a half hour has passed. Now thats a good movie. Musicals, theater etc are hardly my cup of tea, and Hollywood's opium dream renditions are even less in my scope of enjoyment. Why Chicago works where most of them have flopped utterly, I am not sure but would have to bet its down to direction. Chicago's song and dance segments are cut MTV style, but, Marshall seems to have almost perfected this technique to somehow capture the in-theater dramatic 'zowie' feeling that almost never makes it from stage to screen. While many argue Chicago owe its success at the Oscars to the drubbing Moulin Rouge took (quite deservedly) the year before, I happen to disagree and believe that for once the Academy actually got it right. The cast is fantastic. Sure you can nitpick about Gere being too nasally and too Gere, and maybe Zellwegger's drunken bridesmaid dancing could have used a couple more takes, but the final product even with those bizarre ingredients is one of the most enjoyable experiences to come out of Hollywood, maybe ever?