Chicago (2002)
★★½ — Chicago (2002)
Chicago began life as a 1975 Broadway musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, itself loosely based on a 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, who had covered the real-life murder trials that inspired it as a newspaper reporter. A big-screen adaptation had been gestured at for decades (Bob Fosse, who directed the original stage production, was involved in early attempts) before Rob Marshall, whose directing experience to that point was largely in television and stage work, brought it to the screen for Miramax in 2002. It arrived at a moment when the Hollywood musical was widely considered a dead format, and its extraordinary box office performance, alongside six Academy Awards including Best Picture, effectively revived the genre for the following decade.
Chicago (2002) is slick, stylish, and sung-through with the kind of polished energy that screams “Oscar bait” and technically, it’s well-made. The choreography is sharp, the costumes glitzy, and the concept of blending fantasy and reality in a 1920s murder-and-celebrity circus is clever on paper. Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere all commit fully, with Zeta-Jones especially stealing her scenes with icy charisma and killer timing. But here’s the thing: after the first big musical number, the film settles into a groove, and never really leaves it. Every sequence follows the same formula: real world cuts to vaudeville fantasy, song and dance, cut back, repeat. It’s visually consistent, sure, but the repetition makes it feel stale long before the end. The satire about fame, media, and justice gets drowned out by the razzle-dazzle, and the characters never grow beyond their archetypes. It’s not a bad film by any means, just one that didn’t connect with me. If you love Broadway-style musicals and don’t mind the rhythm being predictable, you’ll likely enjoy it more. But for me, it was all style, diminishing returns, and very little emotional punch. Competent, flashy, and fine as a night’s entertainment, but forgettable once the curtain falls. Not my cup of tea, but I can see why others raise a toast.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2002 | Watched: 2025-09-13
Where to watch (UK)
Stream: Sky Go · Now TV Cinema
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · Sky Store
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