All that jazz! Chicago looks great. It sounds great. The musical
numbers dazzle. The actors sizzle. It swings, it sways, it swelters.
Everything about it purrs like a well-oiled machine, one of the most
impeccably-groomed musicals in the history of modern Hollywood.
Audiences and critics alike swooned - the film took home a boatload of
gold at Oscartime, six in all, including the coveted Best Picture. But
let us stop and feel the heat from a slow, simmering backlash - kept
very, very quiet (shhhh, we're hunting wabbit) - that dares to ask
the question: is Chicago really as good as it looks?
The
origins of Chicago as a stage play may be decades old, but it might as
well have been written yesterday, pulled right from the headlines of
the today's trashiest tabloids. Meet Roxie Hart (Oscar nominee Renee
Zellweger), the frustrated housewife who plugs her wayward lover. Sent
directly to jail (do not pass Go, do not collect $200 dollars), there
she meets the legendary Velma Kelly (Oscar winner Catherine-Zeta
Jones), who's about to get off for a double murder thanks to slimy
lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere, who had to settle for a Golden
Globe). As the conniving twosome plot their escape from
"Murderess Row," the media swirls. Notoriety, celebrity,
fame....guilty as charged? What's the difference in the town called
Chicago? Chicago the movie is as slick as they come. So why
was I always afraid to look under the hood? At times, this racy satire
resembles nothing so much as a musical version of that underrated
early 90's import Scandal that starred Joanne-Whalley Kilmer, only
American-ized. It's all a bit postmodern - life imitating art
imitating life, adapted from a stage play that satirized yellow
journalism, corruption, greed and amorality at the dawn of the
information age - reality thrice removed? But whereas this one-time
Broadway flop lived and died by whatever cast you happened to catch
performing it on any particular night, the glare of the big screen
requires a deeper cut. We learn nothing new here - are we a shallow
society obsessed with fame at all costs? Is the cult of celebrity a
one-way ticket to moral bankruptcy? Ya think so? Don't stop the
presses.
But what Chicago may lack in Really Deep Thoughts it
makes up for in the snazzy and the spectacular. Zellwegger, Gere and
especially Jones (here a revelation) acquit themselves admirably as
performers. They can sing, they can dance, and unlike that hollow core
at the center of wannabe Evita (that would be Madonna), they can act.
Jones really nails it - she rips into her Velma with such a fierce
abandon that she burns her image right onto the screen, so bright and
so vivid that she even heats up the scenes she's not in. Zellweger can
be a bit more tentative, a tad too stiff and insecure in her spotlight
numbers. But Gere seems to be having a ball, as does Queen Latifah
(also an Oscar nominee), and even John C. Reilly's everyman
ordinariness is put to perfect use. 
Chicago also works just
dandy as a fiery screen musical, with Bill Condon's script perfectly
attenuating the music and melodramatic dialogue with flair and
panache. Director Rob Marshall also adroitly handles the often
intricate staging, faithfully capturing the same feel and tone as the
stage-bound original but still invigorating the showstoppers to make
them work as real cinema. Ditto the costume design, terrific sets and
slick editing. Chicago may be all image and too little substance, and
only time will tell how well this Oscar favorite holds up. But for
now, it is a movie of our times, for our times. That's Chicago.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Chicago looked great
in the theater, and it looks great on DVD. What a vibrant, alive
picture! Transferred here in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the colors
are just gorgeous. Awash in deep, deep reds and blues with snappy
flashes of bright white, color reproduction is just about perfection.
Even fleshtones remain accurate even amid all the overt stylization.
Only a slight bit of noise mars this otherwise excellent picture.
Blacks and contrast are excellent, resulting in often exquisite detail
and a very three-dimensional image.
This transfer is not quite
reference quality, however; it can appear slightly too sharp, with a
bit of minor haloing noticeable. Compression artifacts are a not a
problem, but it still looks slightly digital, and the noise may also
distract for those with very large display devices. But why quibble?
Good show, good show! 
Audio: How Does The Disc
Sound?
Not quite the headline grabber as the transfer, the
Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround options included here suffer only
from being too front heavy. While the DTS appears to have been encoded
at about -4 dB louder, proper level matching reveals both to be more
or less on par. Frequency response is excellent; the songs explode
from the speakers, with smooth midrange, boisterous highs and great,
rich low bass. Stereo separation across the front is terrific, with
the dialogue, score and zippy effects perfectly balanced. Alas, the
surrounds are just not that active. There is slight score bleed and a
few effects, but the so more like slight attenuation of the front that
truly discrete.
The DTS offers slight improvements. Imaging
across the front channels is nicely transparent, and I noticed finer
detail evident in the rears; pans from front to back also sound more
natural. Low bass is about as punchy as on the Dolby Digital track,
however, and the front-heavy feel is not improved much by going with
the DTS. 
Also included is a French Dolby 5.1 surround track,
Spanish subtitles and English Closed Captions.
Supplements:
What Goodies Are There?
Given the fact Chicago was the most
highly-decorated film of 2002, it is surprising there isn't more here.
What, no two-disc special edition? Perhaps they're saving that one up
for the eventual DVD re-release? Hey, it's Chicago... 
First up
we have a deleted musical number, "Class," originally
cut from the film. I have to admit that it is a great little tune but
does slow down the narrative. Presented in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic
widescreen and 5.1, the quality here is noticeably poorer than the
main feature; the source material is clean and clear but a bit soft
and not quite as vivid. There is also no option to watch the number
reedited back into the picture, as it was during the recent, short-
lived theatrical re-release. Ah, well, here it is.
Next up we
have the highly formulaic 28-minute The Making of Chicago. It
is all pre-release interviews with the main cast and crew, including
Rob Marshall, Bill Condon, Renee Zellweger, Catherine-Zeta Jones,
Queen Latifah and Richard Gere. We learn nothing new here that we
don't already know just by watching the movie. The reason I don't
really like EPKs like this is because they are just extended
commercials; that's fine for HBO, but after I've bought the DVD I
expect something new. PResented in full screen and with no captions
included, you can just skip this one and go right to the
commentary...
Saving the best for last, the new screen-
specific audio commentary by Marshall and Condon is a winner.
Chicago was no sure thing; it took forever to make it to the big
screen, the casting and pre-production processes were nightmarish, and
it was no easy task for Condon to condense such a complex musical into
a coherent motion picture. So what fun is it to listen to this humble
pair wax amazement at how successful it all became. We get lots of
great bits, from working the cast to the bone, improvising key parts
of the musical numbers on the set and just getting Zellweger to sing.
Great stuff.
Rounding it out is a bunch of Buena Vista sneak
peeks, but - of course - no actual trailer for Chicago.
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in
your PC?
No ROM extras have been included, just a standard
interface with basic DVD controls and weblinks.
Parting
Thoughts
It is hard to argue with Chicago as a great, fun,
fizzy time. But is it as great as they say? I dunno. And as a DVD, it
looks great and sounds pretty good, but this feels like a stopgap
release until the real special edition comes along. How about a two-
disc sometime, guys? As is, just pop it in and have fun. Goes great
with champagne, a copy of the National Enquirer and a machine gun.
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