Chicago: The Epitome of the Musical
By: Cameron James Smith
If you want to hear my true thoughts on this piece, they are right in the title. This title can be interpreted as me praising this film as the musical to watch, what musicals should be, or my personal favorite musical; it is none of those. Walking in to this film, my thoughts on musicals were simple: over-the-top, played out, annoying, badly acted, and forced; walking out of this film (the best part), my thoughts remained the same. This... thing delivered on every plot expectation, every cliche, and even showed me things that I wish I could forget about (let's just say, I will never see Richard Gere the same way again). More so, the camera work was flashy and annoying, the music was an appropriated and bland approach to that of the era it was based in, the acting was cringe-worthy, and the attempt to be cool and edgy came off as forced and uncomfortable to watch. The worst thing about this film, however, is that it actually had a good theme/message that it could have went to town on, but flopped on! More on that later, though.
I will say a few things: the two lead actresses (Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones) were good looking, and it did seem like they were trying to make their part; the dancing/choreography was impressive at times, and did somewhat reflect the time/era in a positive light; and the plot/story-line wasn't all that bad. For all this, however, it lacked a lot, which was mentioned earlier. Furthermore (and going back to my previous point), this film actually did have a positive and realistic message: celebrity in-criminality and the idolizing of evil doers is a real thing, and is wrong. On the other hand, the message was crystal clear from the start and continued to shove it down the throats of the audience -- something I cannot stomach! It's approach to being edgy and humorous, along with the annoying camera work/zooms made this film seem more like a corny propaganda piece than a musical satire. If you want a better example of a film utilizing this same message, watch Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers; it is much more worth your time and viewing.
In conclusion, if you like this film, if musicals are your thing, I'm completely fine with that; this does not undermine your credibility as a person or as a film enthusiast. In fact, you'd be in the majority -- this film has an 86% critics score and an 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes! This was all just my opinion, but then again, I am by no means as a musical fan (I think that's been picked up on by this point), so I guess you could say this film "had it coming."
I will say a few things: the two lead actresses (Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones) were good looking, and it did seem like they were trying to make their part; the dancing/choreography was impressive at times, and did somewhat reflect the time/era in a positive light; and the plot/story-line wasn't all that bad. For all this, however, it lacked a lot, which was mentioned earlier. Furthermore (and going back to my previous point), this film actually did have a positive and realistic message: celebrity in-criminality and the idolizing of evil doers is a real thing, and is wrong. On the other hand, the message was crystal clear from the start and continued to shove it down the throats of the audience -- something I cannot stomach! It's approach to being edgy and humorous, along with the annoying camera work/zooms made this film seem more like a corny propaganda piece than a musical satire. If you want a better example of a film utilizing this same message, watch Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers; it is much more worth your time and viewing.
In conclusion, if you like this film, if musicals are your thing, I'm completely fine with that; this does not undermine your credibility as a person or as a film enthusiast. In fact, you'd be in the majority -- this film has an 86% critics score and an 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes! This was all just my opinion, but then again, I am by no means as a musical fan (I think that's been picked up on by this point), so I guess you could say this film "had it coming."
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