Synopsis: This long-awaited movie adaptation of Bob Fosse's 1975 Broadway musical is about two dreamers, Velma Kelley (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger). Velma is the Windy City's top nightclub star until the night she guns down her cheating husband, after which she becomes an even bigger celebrity, thanks to smooth attorney Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). Roxie also desperately wants fame, so the solution is simple: shoot her abusive lover dead. After Roxie replaces her, an outraged Velma plots Roxie's demise as she obsessively pursues her goal of being back on top.

Now for the Zone's Eye View:

By Claire Hoang

Director: Rob Marshall

Starring: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah and Taye Diggs.

Not since Strictly Ballroom arrived on the screen have I been so impressed with a musical film. Trust me I worked in a theatre and watched tons of musicals fly by in those three years, but never have I seen one that has translated to screen as brilliantly as this has. Not even Evita.

Chicago is the tale of two performers/jailbirds, Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly (Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones). Desperate for publicity and freedom, they both play the media as much as they can via their slick lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). It's a tale that works even for today; get the public on your side and you can get away with murder.

The reason that this film is so amazing is simply because it's incredibly well done. The choreography and direction are as slick and precise as anything Baz Lurhman or the great Stanley Donan could ever conceive. The reason stage musicals work so well is because they can introduce musical numbers and never be questioned…it's all greasepaint and bright lights. However on film suddenly bursting into song and dance for no reason is an incredibly hard thing to do…just ask Woody Allen. However here the interweaving between reality and musical numbers is incredible. The editing and screenplay make it entirely plausible whilst still relevantly entertaining. Noticeably on the 'Razzle Dazzle', 'I simply can't do it alone' and the 'Press conference Rag' numbers. It is simply astonishing.

Cast-wise director Rob Marshall had also surpassed himself. Having the Herculean task of having to cast talented, but well-known actors, he couldn't have done better than the central trio. Though slightly self-conscious in some of the performance numbers, Richard Gere is Billy Flynn. The guy slips into the role like Cinderella with a glass slipper. Renée Zellweger too pulls off her usually sweet but feisty role to great success and easily gains the audiences sympathy despite being a complete cow. However the real diamond is Catherine Zeta Jones. Jones has in the past been happy to step into the background in her film roles (especially for Julia Roberts in 'America's Sweethearts' where she took the role Roberts was too frightened to play), but when she walks onto the screen, the shot instantly belongs to her. Her electrical performances in the musical numbers easily surpass Zellweger's, showing an energy about them that contain none of Gere's uncertainty and allows her to dance easily with the talented backing chorus (which contain a few Velma's and Roxie's from Broadway!). Queen Latifah also does a brilliant job as 'Mama Morton' and Taye Diggs is an admirable anchor for the fantasy world.

Overall Marshall has pulled off a double-headed coin of a film. It's not just about flashy sequences as Moulin Rouge was, but its simple plot also hides some relevant themes for today. Fantasy/reality, musical/drama, superficiality/humanity; you really do need to watch it to understand what all the jazz is about. 10 out of 10!

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By Scott Maravilla

When I first read that Miramax was making a film version of Bob Fosse's hit Broadway musical, I cringed. Memories of Madonna's pointless and plotless Evita danced in my head. Evita was a literal translation of stage to screen without any vision or innovation. Then again, some musicals are so well adapted that they become screen legends apart from the stage productions that sired them. The original Grease and The Rocky Horror Picture Show come to mind.

I went to see Chicago at one of my local cinemas on 84th Street and Broadway. I am not too fond of this venue because I am subjected to pre-show music that sounds like it's from the soundtrack of some 1970s European softcore flick and it smells like grandma's house. However, I was well rewarded with one of the best musicals ever made, and definitely one of the best films of the year. Chicago tells the story of Roxy Hart (Renee Zellweger), an aspiring chorus girl who murders her lover after he tells her that he lied about getting her into show business while dumping her. In jail, she meets Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones taking over from the stage musical, and surpassing, the leggy Bebe Neuwirth), another showgirl, who murdered her husband and sister while they were doing "number 17: the spread eagle." The two quickly become rivals for the attentions of their mutual sleazy lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere, naturally), the name sounds more like a Louisiana Tech quarterback than a lawyer, and the notoriety of the Chicago tabloid press. 

Bill Condon turns in a wonderful screenplay. He fleshes out Bob Fosse's production so much so that the story makes more sense than the original musical. He plays up the themes of murder, celebrity, lawyers and corruption very well. The best innovation of the screenplay is how the musical numbers are incorporated into the story. Audiences are generally averse to people breaking out in song in the middle of a story without warning. Moulin Rouge and Evita took a surreal, otherworldly approach in order to achieve suspension of disbelief. Chicago achieves the same surrealism of those films while preserving the story. The musical numbers are either a part of the film like All That Jazz being sung by Velma Kelly as part of her nightclub act, or are in the heads of the protagonists themselves, mostly Roxy Hart's. 

Rob Marshall not only directs the film, but is the chief choreographer as well. He blends the worlds of film and stage production together well. The performances are all very good, but Catherine Zeta Jones and Queen Latifah deserve special mention. The two execute great performances among great performances. Without Zeta Jones, this film would not have worked so well. She has the experience on London's West End stage to carry the score (I keep playing my CD over and over) with the screen presence of a classic star. Queen Latifah, despite her rap background and the tortuous Living Single, can belt out a tune with the best of them. Her charging the inmates $50-100 per phone call is still cheaper than AT&T. 

Renee Zellweger continues to prove that her performance in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Next Generation was not an aberration. Seriously, she is proving herself as an excellent actress after a turn as the sympathetic Bridget Jones and now with a hit musical. Richard Gere turns in a good performance, and why not? He emerged on the scene in the 1970s as the star of Broadway's hit musical Grease. A big lift after being miscast in last summer's Unfaithful. John C. Reilly (The Good Girl, The Hours and Boogie Nights) is on the verge of being type cast as the jilted husband, but I love his performance of Mister Cellophane. 

Overall, this is one of my top 5 films of 2002. A definite 9.5.