 March
2003
This month's review:
Chicago
Razzle Dazzle ‘Em
Well, folks, it’s Academy Award time again. Don’t know if that’s
of any importance to you or not, but since movies nominated for
Oscars are generally “big movies” and are talked about a good deal,
it might be worthwhile to review one of those biggies. So let’s talk
about Chicago.
Set in the 1920s, Chicago is a musical about Windy
City women who have murdered their husbands or boyfriends and are
waiting on death row. Not many of them will swing, though—at least
not if they have the right lawyer to get them off. Renee Zellweger
plays Roxie Hart, a young married woman who shoots the man she’s
having an affair with because he wants to leave her. Catherine
Zeta-Jones plays Velma Kelly, a woman who has killed her husband.
Richard Gere plays Billy Flynn, the Johnny Cochrane-type lawyer who
gets them off with his razzle dazzle courtroom tricks.
On the positive side: The movie is colorful and lively and
full of strong performances. Catherine Zeta-Jones dances and sings
her socks off and does a great American accent (She’s British.).
Renée Zellweger does a creditable job with the role of Roxie. John
C. Reilly shines as Roxie’s wimp husband, especially in his musical
number Mr. Cellophane, about a man so unimpressive you can see right
through him. And who would have thought that Richard Gere could sing
and dance so well?
On the negative side: Besides a lot of four-letter words
and the glamorizing of immoral behavior, there’s an emptiness at
Chicago’s core. Most of the great movie musicals have a point of
view and show some kind of moral transformation of a character.
Con-man Harold Hill in The Music Man is redeemed by
love. Prideful and arrogant Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair
Lady is ultimately humbled by the poor flower girl he’s made
a lady. The gang members in West Side Story learn
about the destructiveness of their hate. Here, however, there’s no
moral center and thus nothing uplifting. Roxie and Velma’s murderous
exploits qualify them to leave death row and go on to star in a
successful song and dance act. We might be tempted to say, “How far
the musical has sunk!”
Redeeming values? A friend pointed out that Chicago
makes a comment about our legal system and the issue of justice (to
say nothing about the excessive power of the media). After all, one
of the main songs is called Razzle Dazzle ‘Em. Do juries seek the
truth, or are they just swayed by the better performance? What does
it take to convince a jury? A good lawyer, basically. Maybe Clarence
Darrow won the verdict in the Scopes trial because he razzle dazzled
the jury better than William Jennings Bryan did. Maybe O. J. got off
because of Johnny Cochrane’s razzle dazzle courtroom work.
Chicago seems to say, satirically, that in America whatever
you do is fine, so long as you can escape the consequences and
perform well while doing so. That theme might make this movie
worthwhile, but I’m not necessarily convinced. You can enjoy and
admire Chicago, but can you be uplifted by it? I’ll
leave it up to you.
Rating: 3 ½
stars
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Index of movie
reviews...
(2003 reviews through present)
Jay Maurer, a member of West Side Presbyterian Church, is
a long-term movie buff and former college teacher of The Film as
Literature. He has written movie reviews for The Good News
(West Side newsletter) since 2002.
If you have comments or questions
about the movie (or play) reviews, please contact Jay at
dramachap@msn.com.
Ratings are expressed in
increments of ¼ star.
A rating of 2 ½ stars or higher is meant to be a recommendation.
1 star: poor
2 stars: minimally satisfactory
3 stars: quite good
4 stars: superb
Criteria for determining the ratings:
- Reflection, either explicit or implicit, of Christian values,
including suitability of language and lack of gratuitous violence
- Quality of the acting
- Originality
- Unity of the entire picture
- Substance, or in the words of C.S. Lewis, weight
Other Christian movie review Web sites:
Plugged In Online
ChristianityTodayMovies.com
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