Chicago is a 2002 Crime Drama/Comedy musical movie starring Catherine Zeta-Jones (Velma Kelly), Renee Zellweger (Roxie Hart), John C. Reilly (Amos), Richard Gere (Billy Flynn), and Queen Latifah (Matron "Mama" Morton).
Chicago starts off with Roxie Hart cheating on her husband Amos just so she can get an opportunity at doing a musical number. The man she is cheating with decides to leave her, but she doesn't want him to so she touches him. The man turns around and pushes her into the wall. Roxie then grabs a gun out of the dresser and shoots the man. Once the cops get to the scene Amos and Roxie make it seem like it was a robbery until Amos gets too overwhelmed and says that Roxie really killed the man [he does this upon the realization that they had a prior relationship with the "burguler" that he sold them their furniture - "even gave [them] a discount"]. [What about the staging of scene? Any thoughts on the blending of the realistic and the theatrical esp. the use of cross-cut editing?]
Roxie gets put into a prison with a bunch of other women. In the jail she meets one of her idols "Velma Kelly." Velma was said to have killed her husband and sister when she found them sleeping together. In jail Roxie is told she can do musical numbers and the people love her. This leads Velma to get jealous and ask Roxie if she wants to be a duo. Roxie declines and Velma starts plotting on how to get revenge on her. When someone new is brought to the jail Roxie tries talking to her lawyer but her ignores her. She decides to fake passing out and when she is helped up she says that she is pregnant. By court rules since she is pregnant she has to have an immediate trial. She tells Amos that the baby is his when in reality there is no baby. The court case is going by smoothly in favor of Roxie until Velma testifies once she finds Roxie's journal and writes in it that Roxie killed the man she cheated with. Roxie objects and at the end of the day the case is done and Roxie is set free. At the end Roxie is trying to get her life back on track by doing musical number tryouts but she is rejected by a lot of people. Velma approaches Roxie on her way out of a bar and asks her if she wants to be a duo now so they can be great. Roxie says no at first but then agrees to be a team with Velma. At the end of the movie Velma and Roxie get a standing ovation after one of their acts and it seems like they are both back on top.
Chicago for me was a good film, but I'm not really into musical movies. I would have preferred if the movie was just a straight crime movie because all the musical scenes made me really bored, and I wasn't too entertained by them.
Anthony,
Your blog as it stands has an over-reliance on recall/retell. I don't really get a feel for your experience as a viewer until your last two sentences. Maybe you should flip it - consider why it works as a crime thriller and put some effort into analyzing why specific musical numbers didn't work for you or how maybe some were more effective than others. Additionally, prior to viewing the film, we looked at a series of slides and discussed the idea of the celebrity criminal - what does Chicago have to say about fame and what some people are willing to do to obtain it? I look forward to reading your revised post.
Best,
MM
No comments:
Post a Comment