Chicago

Chicago (2002) is about two women on trial for murder in the twenties and how those trials become entertainment. Roxie Hart shoots her lover. In prison she meets Velma Kelly, a stage star who killed her husband and her sister. They share a lawyer: Billy Flynn, who does not win cases in court but in the newspapers. The idea is that the fastest route to fame in America is a crime, and the courtroom is a stage. The hard problem in adapting it was this: on stage people sing, in cinema they do not. Rob Marshall's solution was to put every musical number inside Roxie's head. An interrogation is under way, the film cuts, and the same event plays as a vaudeville turn. Nobody is singing; Roxie is only seeing it that way. It comes from Bob Fosse's stage musical and the choreography preserves his language. Catherine Zeta-Jones won supporting actress; she was the only member of the cast with a stage background. Richard Gere learned to tap dance for the film. The best sections are the Cell Block Tango and the press conference staged as a puppet show. It won best picture, the first musical to do so since 1968, and reopened the genre in cinemas. It runs 113 minutes. Good for: musicals, period film, and black humour. Less good for: if you dislike musicals there is singing throughout, and not one character is sympathetic.