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Chicago
Review: Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones) burns in the spotlight as a night-club sensation. When she shoots her philandering husband, she lands on Chicago's famed murderous row, retains Chicago's slickest lawyer, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) and is the centre of the town's most notorious murder case, only increasing her celebrity. Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger), seduced by the city's promise of style and adventure, dreams of singing and dancing her way to stardom. When Roxie's abusive lover tries to walk out on her, she too ends up in prison. Billy recognises a made-for-tabloids story - infamy is Roxie's ticket to stardom. Billy turns her crime of passion into celebrity headlines, and in his town, where murder is a form of entertainment, she becomes a bone fide star – much to Velma's chagrin. As Roxie fashions herself as America's sweetheart, Velma has more than a few surprises in store and the two women stop at nothing to outdo each other in their obsessive pursuit of fame and celebrity. Critique After the unprecedented success of Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, Chicago from Director Rob Marshall seemed to arrive in cinemas at the right time. With Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones and Richard Gere heading the sparkling cast, moviegoers were in for another lavish all-singing, all-dancing spectacle. However, there are a great number of differences between Chicago and Moulin Rouge - for example, box-office newcomer Marshall keeps most of the musical numbers as daydreams of our lead character, Roxie Hart (Zellweger), thus providing credibility for whatever elaborately planned routines he could dream up in the most unlikeliest of places. The three leads perform well, but the film really revolves around Roxie, a wife who has grand ambitions of taking to the stage and being loved by audiences everywhere. A man approaches her with promises of using his connections to get her in the spotlight, but the naive Roxie shoots him after discovering that he was lying to her. Sent to prison, Roxie has the likes of Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones) to keep her company - a successful and glamourous performer who shot her husband. In order to escape a guilty verdict at the trial, Roxie enlists the services of top lawyer Billy Flynn (Gere) to dazzle the courtroom and stir up public attention over her case. Soon, Roxie finds herself a local star like Velma Kelly, with only the impending trial coming between her and fame on the stage. The dramatic side of the film is adequate, but clearly just there to fill in the gaps between the various songs. Zellweger oozes sex appeal on the stage, despite being a weaker performer technically than Catherine Zeta Jones - meanwhile, Richard Gere appropriately takes a ringmaster approach to his musical numbers and even dabbles in a spot of tap dancing later on. Catherine Zeta Jones is impressive when dancing around, but a combination of her character and the brevity of the dialogue-based scenes prevent her from being equally memorable when the dancing stops. Gere has a lot fun in almost every one of his scenes, playing around with his Billy Flynn role - a wild courtroom scene at the end is his funniest moment. Rob Marshall, whose background is in the theatre, brings a colourful and imaginative eye to the stage sequences, while the film's production design is top-notch. However, the huge amount of critical acclaim that was been heaped upon the project has arguably been a tad excessive. This is more like a stage musical with a few small scenes of dialogue in between, as opposed to a powerful dramatic story boosted by songs. The appeal of the underlying story is fairly strong, but by no means tremendously powerful - this alone should have prevented the film from winning the Best Picture Oscar. Overall, Chicago fails to pack a knockout punch in terms of story, but remains a highly enjoyable musical with impressive performances and lush visuals. It would have been very interesting to see what a 'non-musical' version of the tale would have been like - the cast, production design and glamourous 1920s setting would have all been in place for a great film. 7 out of 10 The Video The anamorphic widescreen transfer is good, but not great and certainly not reference quality despite its THX certification. The rich colours are captured brilliantly on the disc, while no print damage surfaces. There is no unwanted grain on display, but some serious noise has crept in, which can be quite distracting at times. This noise issue does, of course, become exponentially severe as the display size grows. Sharpness is generally pleasing, although some slip-ups do periodically crop up in this department. Some excessive edge enhancement may also be visible to the well-trained eye, but there are thankfully no problems with either the black levels or aliasing. Overall, the image quality is good, but not as impressive as expected. 8 out of 10 The Audio Given the musical nature of the film, both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks are provided on the disc. The two streams sound expectedly similar, offering powerful output from all channels during the numerous musical numbers and brilliant clarity throughout. Ambience from the surround speakers is noticeable yet disappointingly minimal for the dialogue-based scenes, meaning that the rears only perk up when the songs commence. Those with DTS compatible equipment will benefit from better front and rear channel separation, along with wider, bassier surround output. However, these improvements are as minor as they almost always are in such comparisons of the two formats - those with only Dolby capabilities will therefore not miss out on much. Overall, both soundtracks deliver music very well, but sound slightly restrained at other times. 8 out of 10 The Extras Despite the film receiving a truckload of Oscar nominations and grossing monster figures at box-offices worldwide, only a single-disc set has been made available to fans. Those with a cynical (and arguably realistic) view will no doubt suspect that a 2-disc special edition will be unleashed upon the buying public in due course. Although only three bonus material items are provided here, the overall impression of the extras is much more positive than expected due to the quality of each feature. The most significant supplement is the excellent audio commentary by Director Rob Marshall and Screenwriter Bill Condon. Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, this insightful track reveals many interesting facts about the cast, the film's narrative structure and the production process. Both the hosts get a fair say, although Marshall obviously serves as the dominant voice. To balance out this technical commentary, an additional track from the cast would have been appreciated to share behind-the-scenes anecdotes and pre-production experiences. Next up is a 29 minute 'Behind The Scenes Special', which is shown in 1.33:1 full-frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. This item actually turns out to be weightier than expected, offering interviews with the major players, glimpses at dance rehearsals featurette and the costume design. However, some viewers will tire of the usual praising of colleagues though, while the featurette is clearly nowhere near as satisfying as a lengthier, purpose-made documentary. The extras close with the deleted musical number 'Class' with optional commentary by Director Rob Marshall and Screenwriter Bill Condon. Clocking in at 4 minutes, this cut song is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The song is worth a spin after watching the film, although Marshall is very fair in his commentary, where he explains that the sequence was 'dishonest to the concept' of the narrative and a slowing factor. The menus are animated and presented with background sound in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, while the solo disc is housed in a black plastic amaray case without a booklet inside. Shockingly, not even a chapter listing has been included next to the disc. Overall, this does not feel like the definitive set of supplements for Chicago and the high quality of each bonus material item is simply not enough to rescue the extras. A film this popular will clearly receive a re-release at some point - it's just a matter of waiting. 6 out of 10 RATINGS SUMMARY Movie
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