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Chicago  Dir. Rob Marshall

Feat. Renee Zellweger (Roxie Hart), Dominic West (Fred Casely), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Velma Kelly), Richard Gere (Billy West).

Miramax, 2002.

This Rob Marshall film gets all of it’s fame from being a mix of a broadway thriller and crime filled saga. Roxie Hart was convicted of killing Fred Casely after he basically used her for a sexy night, but she thought she was going to get something out of it. She thought that he was going to further her career. It ended up not being that way, so they got into a heated argument, which ended with Roxie behind bars, and Fred in a body bag.

Roxie met Velma Kelly in prison who was actually a performer at the Onyx, the club where Fred was supposedly going to get Roxie a gig. Roxie and Velma had a lot of things in common, but the biggest one was that they had the same attorney: Billy Flynn. Billy is a guy who thought he was “all that and a bag of chips.” He was a very deceitful guy who used his clients to get famous. I mean he lived up to the saying of “money talks and BS walks.”

Velma initially warned Roxie not to pay Billy $5,000 for him to take her case. Roxie did not listen to her. To me Roxie was a little bipolar, but I see why. When she found out about how Billy likes to “scam” his clients and use them for publicity she cut ties with him. Continuing on, when she saw another inmate get convicted of murder (same charge that Roxie was facing) [not just convicted but hanged!] she then went back to Billy because she knew he could get her acquitted, and he did.

Chicago is hyped up to be this big iconic broadway film, and I can see why. As I said it is a mix between a dance thriller and a crime filled saga. To me, this undermined the stereotype of “all men are criminals.” For example, Velma Kelly, Roxie Hart, the Hungarian girl are all females in prison. It also portrayed how show business can lead people to the boiling point. I would recommend this movie to someone like Aysia Starr Comins-Sporbert, because it is a dance filled saga that has taken place on Broadway. I would also recommend this to someone who wants to get into show bus, because it is a clear description of a sticky situation that one might find themselves in.