Screen adaptation of the popular Broadway musical. A young wife (Zellweger) accused of murdering her lover, finds fame when she takes up with a glitzy entertainer (Zeta-Jones), also in jail for murder, and a big time press-manipulating lawyer (Gere).

A visual masterpiece filled with colorful cinematography and wonderful costumes. Like many musicals, the plot runs thin but this often made up for in show-stopping singing and dancing numbers. I really enjoyed both Z-Girls here in their leading roles. Richard Gere is his usual unimpressive self but passable as the lawyer Bobby Flynn. It is truly wondersome how he can be so flat in a role one can play totally over the top—he is an enigma. Queen Latifah as Mama Morton is quite enjoyable, and the rest of the cast should be glad her musical numbers and dialogue are kept relatively small, if not she’d surely steal the show.

The numerous musical numbers are largely well done. It is obvious that great effort and rehearsal time that was needed to make them this impressive. I was put off a bit by the choppy camera work in several of them. Cutting in on feet, then cutting to someone’s face implies that very often the leads weren't doing their own footwork. Especially obvious was a rear-filmed Richard Gere tap number.

I found the pacing and placing of many of the numbers curious as well. They were too equally distributed through the script. After the first three numbers you knew when to anticipate the next. You knew that if you counted down form 100 at the end of one song, the next song would be starting just as you got to 1.

Despite its somewhat obvious shortcomings, Chicago is pretty darn entertaining. Now, if I can only convince a studio to remake Guys and Dolls…oh sure, they'd just cast Ben Affleck in it anyway.

Directed by Rob Marshall.

2002 Best Picture Oscar Winner.