The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I am a musician who loves movies and Chicago. This made picking a movie to review an easy task for me. The musical movie Chicago is an adaptation of the stage production written by Bob Fosse et. al. in 1975. Fosse grew up in Chicago in the 1930's and 1940's and the movie shows that Chicago as viewed through the jaded cynicism of the 1970's.Renee Zellweger plays Roxie Hart, a would-be singer accused of homicide. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Velma Kelly, a nightclub singer who has been convicted of homicide. Richard Gere plays Billy Flynn, the slick, slightly smarmy lawyer who represents the two women.Gangster Chicago is the setting of this story, but the story is really about media coverage, celebrity, and hype. Even as she anticipates her murder trial, Roxie and Billy are trying to figure out how to play the media angles so that Roxie can be acquitted and her career can be energized. Ironically, the hype surrounding the movie is just the kind of hype that the movie views with cynicism and disdain.Chicago is considered to be a front-runner in the Oscar race with 13 nominations including nominations for best picture, rookie director Rob Marshall, and acting nominations for Zellwegger, Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, and John C. Reilly. Richard Gere, who won the Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy or musical, was the only prominent actor in the film not nominated for an Oscar for his performance.This is the second year in a row that a musical has been nominated for best picture (Moulin Rouge was nominated last year). Two in a row is not exactly a trend, and if Chicago should win best picture it will be the first musical to do so since Oliver won the prize in 1968.Oscar hype aside, is this a good movie? Yes. The performances are outstanding, especially John C. Reilly as the not-too-sharp but faithful husband of Roxie Hart. The movie is worth seeing if only to see Reilly singing "Mr. Cellophane". But it's not just performances that get my thumb tilting upward. The songs are great, and the film's story is light in tone, yet delightfully cynical while dealing with the lurid side of Chicago's past.And this is the lurid side of Chicago's past to be sure. In his famous poem about Chicago, Carl Sandburg describes Chicago as the city of big shoulders with its husky workers. Sandburg also talks about a violent city with painted ladies, and this is the Chicago depicted here ("we're not in Kansas, anymore Toto"). If dark themes with a light tone viewed through a sharply cynical lens are your cup of tea, give this one a try. If you would prefer dark themes with a dark tone and a darkly cynical lens, Gangs of New York might better fill the bill. I do love New York, but Chicago really is my kind of town and Chicago is my kind of movie.

Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) is taken to prison on murder charges where she meets Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones). The two are represented by the same attorney, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), and both are captivated by being in the spotlight. A major theme throughout this film is corruption. Corruption of society is brought up when Fred Casely (Dominic West) lies to Roxie. It was wrong of him to lie, but it is also a highlight on just how low people will go to get what they want. Roxie was believing the lie just because she wanted to get into showbiz. The color contributes to the theme of corruption during the second song. Amos Hart (John C Reilly) was covering for Roxie, and when realizes what happened, he tells everything to the police. At this point, Roxie is bathed in a red light, representing corruption, contrasting with Amos who has blue, pure, light over him. The press conference really brought to light how corrupt everything was. The press were represented as puppets with Billy Flynn as the puppeteer. This symbolizes that he has full control of the press and they write whatever makes his clients look good. This theme can also be seen in The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont. Corruption takes place in the prison between bringing in contraband to illegal bookwork. This is true for Chicago as well, you notice that anything can be done for a pretty penny.

Not surprisingly, this film is adapted from a play. To put it simply, the film feels as if they took the play, filmed it with a nice camera, and put it on the screen. But they did it nicely and made a great film full of fantastic acting, emotion-packed scenes, and vivid visuals.A story of an aspiring showgirl in Chicago, it transcends the shallow emotions of the primary characters, instead painting a rich and deep portrait of tough human emotion with a hint of satire. When caught too deep in the tragedy of the story, Marshall plucks the characters out of the depths and inserts a bit of humor and satire, keeping true to both the subject matter and form of film.To imbue emotion into a musical of this scale is a tremendous and monumental task. But the cast do it. Zellweger, as the main character, portrays a perfect naivety and shallowness, showing off her skills as an experienced and talented actress. Zeta-Jones is a wonderful supporting actress who illuminates the wonderfully paralleled stories and emotions of the two main showgirls. Gere is outrageously funny. Whether by purpose or on accident, he feels out of place and awkward in a musical, adding humor, but still turns in a fine performance. John C. Reilly in his sparse amount of scenes is absolutely splendid. In what must be the best performance of his career, Reilly embodies the character and makes the viewer earnestly pity and understand him. His solo is spectacular.Every song fit. The songs were set up to both parallel the plot and illustrate the plot at the same time. The set-up is not only artistic, but serves a thematic purpose for the film. However, many a times utilizing song as the main instrument in a film detracts from the rest of it. In this case, the music acts to bolster the emotion of the film, effectively conveying the powerful feelings of the character through carefully constructed music, perfectly exuberant acting, and aptly shiny visuals. The incorporation of these songs into the dialogue makes for a brilliantly crafted screenplay. A film of masterful parallelism on all levels and stimulating plot, Chicago is a story of highs and lows, dramatized to the fullest potential.

I generally dislike musicals, so was very pleasantly surprised when I liked this. Good story, vibrant musical sequences with bouncy music. The whole movie just moves along at a brisk pace, propelled by the musical interludes, the interesting, clever story and the witty dialogue.Great performances all round. Entire cast shines, with Catherine Zeta- Jones, Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere to the fore. Zeta-Jones won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar and Zellweger was nominated for Best Actress. Even John C Reilly and Queen Latifah put in solid performances, enough to get them Supporting Actor/Actress Oscar nominations.Good fun.