There’s something to be said about the experience of seeing a live show as opposed to seeing a movie. The stage projects a different aura, engulfs you with its personality and charm; the sounds of the orchestra fill the room louder and with more energy than any Dolby Digital Surround Sound System and the characters in front of you have more life to them than anyone on the silver screen. In the case of Chicago, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this now in both forms and I can safely say, yeah, stage performances are better.
The problem with most plays that are adapted for the screen is they pull the same bullshit that makes superhero movies so horrible. In an attempt to remain accurate to the experience originally received by the audience, they often forget that they don’t have the same boundaries as they would if they were on stage or in a comic book panel. Though they aren’t afraid to change the scenery to where it’s actually located instead of in front of a bunch of plasterboard cutouts of, say, New York City or…homeless people, they can never seem to get the grandeur right. It always seems like they’re holding back because god forbid the 90 year olds who show up who once saw the play at the local dinner theatre charge the box office flailing around dirty Depends screaming “how dare you add modern instruments to enhance the score or use a fluid camera once in a while to exaggerate movement and guide the audience through a scene! Rabble! Rabble! Rabble! Ah, pooped myself again!” But that’s enough bitching. This movie is much better than I’m giving it credit for right now.
Despite not meeting my asshole criteria and following the safe, boring, cliché standards of any “adapted for the silver screen” movie, Chicago is still an enchanting experience with a fantastic story, memorable numbers, and plenty of pizzazz to make it well worth the watch. Telling the tale of Roxie (played beautifully by Renee Zellweger) and Velma (Catherine Zeta-Jones who, despite being perfect for this role is still fucking boring to watch), Chicago takes us to the famed “Murderess Row,” filled with women whose crimes of passion, longing, fame, and wealth all seem to take on the form of crimes of murder. Backed by sleazy lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere, just as sleazy), the devious divas use fame to keep themselves out of the hot seat, manipulating the media, the public, and the jury to stay alive.
I have to give credit to the casting of this movie; they did a stellar job of finding people who fit their roles very well with Zellweger, Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah as the ringleader of sorts. These are all women who know how to be manipulative and powerful and make you fear that power in every saucy, seductive, sinister syllable they speak and that is captured flawlessly in this film. These women are menaces to society, deserve to be locked away, but you can’t help but sympathize with them because they’re that fucking good at making you feel that way. What’s a good ending to this story? We fall for the charm and innocence these girls exude and let them walk away scott-free? Or we don’t? Kind of depends on who you are, I guess.
You really have to be the stage play type to appreciate this movie or it’s just going to be High School Musical 4: Can’t Say You Didn’t See This Coming. It does suffer from the same struggles that most movies about plays tend to struggle from, but I’m a picky bastard and can’t hold that against it. Chicago did a lot of things right and I really enjoyed the watch. For that, I’m giving it a very strong 9 dustbusters out of 10.
I AM a stage play type :) and I agree whole-heartedly; for the most part, filmed adaptations of stage shows always fall short of the originals. The movie version of "Chicago" succeeds in being one of the ones that doesn't fall very far.
ReplyDeleteIt's an unfortunate truth that on the stage folks can burst into song at any time and the audience goes with it; on film, not so much. One brilliant thing they did here (although it means excluding a couple of interesting numbers) is to show that all the musical numbers are creations of Roxie's imagination...so if Roxie isn't in the scene, there's no musical number. If you have to make a change to the source material, at least it's nice to see somebody using their head.
I'm with ya on the casting. I had NO idea Zeta-Jones could do what she does in this, and Renee Zellweger...well, she was robbed. She got into GREAT shape to play Roxie, learned how to move like a dancer, and does a fine job with some pretty difficult musical numbers...but Nicole Kidman straps on a fake nose and wins the Oscar.
And "Cell Block Tango"...still one of the funniest musical numbers of all time :)
I really did enjoy Cell Block Tango but man did I love "We Both Reached for the Gun." That's a song that did a great job with the extra direction instead of "sitting in front of a stage."
ReplyDeleteThere was definitely a lot to like in this movie, and the "musical numbers are creations of Roxie's imagination" thing never really helped this film for me, and after watching Suckerpunch, I REALLY despised that concept, but didn't dock this points because Chicago did it first and it wasn't nauseating.