Taglines: It began with a hit…
1920s Chicago. Housewife Roxie Hart dreams of fame, most specifically being a star in vaudeville, and plans on sleeping her way to the top… with someone other than her husband, the overly trusting and loyal Amos Hart. When Roxie learns that Fred Casely, who promised her a big break at the Onyx Club, only said so to sleep with her, she kills him during an altercation. She ends up being incarcerated at Cook County jail on overpopulated murderess row, the inmates who primarily knocked off a man who did them wrong.
Among them is one of Roxie’s idols, Velma Kelly, one half of the headlining Kelly sisters appearing at the Onyx Club, Velma who purportedly killed her husband Charlie and her sister Veronica when she found them cavorting with each other. Velma has no time for people like Roxie: Velma Kelly wannabes or hangers-on. The prison matron, “Mama” Morton, likes to help her girls… for a price.
Even more predatory is lawyer Billy Flynn, the best in getting women prisoners exonerated, but again at an even more exorbitant price. Billy’s game plan generally is publicity, to make his clients stars, which if he does end up representing Roxie may shift the balance of celebrity between Roxie and Velma, the latter who is also obsessed with her own fame. But if Billy can do such for Roxie, he can do so for others, all who are clamoring for that limited real estate on newspaper front pages. Through it all, Roxie and Velma may eventually come to the understanding that beyond fame, their life or death may also be on the line.
Chicago is a 2002 American musical crime comedy-drama film based on the stage-musical of the same name, exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Chicago during the Jazz Age. The film stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger and Richard Gere. Chicago centers on Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones) and Roxie Hart (Zellweger), two murderesses who find themselves in jail together awaiting trial in 1920s Chicago. Velma, a vaudevillian, and Roxie, a housewife, fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows.
Directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall, and adapted by screenwriter Bill Condon, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, Chicago won six Academy Awards in 2003, including Best Picture. The film was critically lauded, and was the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968.
The film grossed $170,687,518 in the United States and Canada, as well $136,089,214 in other territories. Combined, the film grossed $306,776,732 worldwide, which was, at the time, the highest gross of any film never to reach #1 or #2 in the weekly box office charts in the North American markets (Canada and United States—where it peaked at #3). This record has since been outdone by Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. Worldwide, Chicago was the highest grossing live action musical with $306 million, a record that was then broken by Mamma Mia!.
About the Story
In 1924, Roxie Hart sees star Velma Kelly perform (“All That Jazz”) at a Chicago theater. Wanting stardom for herself, she begins an affair with Fred Casely, who claims to know the manager. After the show, Velma is arrested for killing her husband Charlie and sister Veronica, who were in bed together.
A month later, Casely admits to Roxie that he has no showbiz connections and just wanted her body. Enraged, she shoots him dead. She convinces her husband, Amos, to take the blame, telling him she killed a burglar in self-defense. As Amos confesses to the detective, Roxie fantasizes that she is singing a song devoted to her husband (“Funny Honey”). However, when the detective brings up evidence that Roxie and Casely were having an affair, Amos recants; Roxie furiously admits what really happened and is arrested. Ambitious District Attorney Harrison announces he will seek the death penalty.
At Cook County Jail, Roxie is sent to Murderess’ Row, under the care of the corrupt matron “Mama” Morton (“When You’re Good to Mama”). Roxie meets her idol Velma, but her friendship is rudely rebuffed. She learns the backstories of the other women there, including Velma Kelly (“Cell Block Tango”). On Morton’s advice, Roxie engages Velma’s lawyer, the brilliant Billy Flynn (“All I Care About”).
Flynn and Roxie manipulate the press, reinventing Roxie’s identity as an originally virtuous woman turned bad by the fast life of the city; she claims she had the affair with Casely because Amos was always working, but repented and dumped him for Amos, and Casely jealously attacked her (“We Both Reached for the Gun”). The press believe the story; praised by the public as a tragic heroine, Roxie becomes an overnight sensation (“Roxie”). Velma, unhappy at losing the public’s attention, tries to convince Roxie to join her act, replacing the sister that she murdered (“I Can’t Do It Alone”), but Roxie, now the more popular of the two rivals, snubs her just as Velma originally did.
Meanwhile, Kitty Baxter, a wealthy heiress, is arrested for murdering her husband and his two lovers, and the press and Flynn pay more attention to her. To Velma’s surprise, Roxie quickly steals back the fame by claiming to be pregnant. Amos is ignored by the press (“Mister Cellophane”), and Flynn, to create more sympathy for Roxie, convinces him that the child is Casely’s, and that he should divorce Roxie in the middle of her predicament. Roxie over-confidently fires Flynn, believing she can now win on her own. However, when Katalin Helinszki, a Hungarian woman from Murderess’ Row, is hanged, Roxie realizes the gravity of the situation and rehires Flynn.
Roxie’s trial begins, and Billy turns it into a media spectacle (“Razzle Dazzle”) with the help of the sensationalist newspaper reporters and radio personality Mary Sunshine. Billy discredits witnesses, manipulates evidence, and even stages a public reconciliation between Amos and Roxie when she says the child is his.
The trial seems to be going Roxie’s way until Velma appears with Roxie’s diary: she reads incriminating entries in exchange for amnesty in her own case. Billy discredits the diary, implying that Harrison was the one who planted the evidence (“A Tap Dance”). Roxie is acquitted, but her fame is eclipsed moments later when another woman, who had also shot her own husband, shoots her lawyer just outside the courthouse. Flynn tells her to accept it, and admits that he tampered with her diary himself, in order to incriminate the district attorney and also free two clients at once. Amos remains loyal and excited to be a father, but Roxie cruelly rejects him, revealing that she is not pregnant, and he finally leaves her.
Chicago (2002)
Directed by: Rob Marshall
Starring: Catherine Zeta Jones, Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere, John Reilly, Lucy Liu, Chita Rivera, Jayne Eastwood, Colm Feore, Robert Smith, Sean Wayne Doyle
Screenplay by: Bill Condon
Production Design by: John Myhre
Cinematography by: Dion Beebe
Film Editing by: Martin Walsh
Set Decoration by: Gordon Sim
Coztume Design by: Colleen Atwood
Art Direction by: Andrew M. Stearn
Music by: Danny Elfman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and dialogue, violence and thematic elements.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: December 27, 2002
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