"Chicago" Is Released

It's rare to find a picture as exuberant, as shallow — and as exuberant about its shallowness — as Rob Marshall's film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Chicago." The movie, set in Prohibition-era Chicago following the murder trial of the manipulative kewpie doll Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger), is tough, brittle fun — a mouthful. It's the raw expenditure of energy and the canniness of the staging that should pull audiences in and keep them rooted. This of course is undoubtedly the best way to present a movie take on Bob Fosse's digressive musical version of "Chicago." This new picture maintains the relentless spirit of Fosse's blunt suavity and the breathless, black-silk enthusiasm of Kander and Ebb's songs. Catherine Zeta-Jones, in Louise Brooks wig and ruthless smile, is Roxie's fellow felon and jailbird, Velma. And as the big-ticket defense lawyer and jury barometer Billy Flynn, Richard Gere has never been better, turning spoiled princeling arrogance into a witty revel. — Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/272628/Chicago/...