Chicago takes place in the early 1920's, with everything in the production, from the props to the sets to especially the numerous musical numbers reflecting the aesthetic of this time period in incredibly distinctive ways. Set against this era-specific backdrop is the tale of Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger), an aspiring actor who wishes for nothing more than to get up on stage and sing and make a name for herself. For now though, she's struggling to get anywhere and has now gotten herself into massive trouble as she's murdered a man she was having an affair with, which has led to her arrest and an impending trial that could result in her being hung.
To help her get out of this situation, she calls upon the help of prolific lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), a man whose well-known for helping ladies get off scott free for their crimes. In his attempt to exonerate her, Billy makes Roxie a media sensation, one that he hopes jurors will find irresistible and impossible to condemn to death. The newfound fame of Roxie irritates fellow prisoner Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and plenty of strife, interpersonal conflicts and musical numbers ensue as Roxie tries to fight to maintain both her freedom and the fame she's procured in her time in the slammer.
There is a lot of flashiness going on in Chicago, a movie that heavily takes advantage of the stylized tendencies of the musical genre to create musical numbers that lean heavily on vaudeville tropes and other show business quirks (like ventriloquism) that were prominent in the early 1920's. This is also one of those movie musicals that tries to have its cake and eat it too in terms of having such heightened flights of fancy, in that it totally has a bunch of super over-the-top musical numbers but it also creates a realistic explanation for why they're occurring so as to ground the production. Here, the reason given for why musical numbers frequently crop up in the story is that all the showstopper sequences exist solely in the minds of the various characters, which is primarily done as a way to show how much the concept of becoming a famous singer & dancer has permeated Roxie's mind.
The myriad of musical numbers found in Chicago are frequently quite fun, especially in how each tune seems to have its own distinctive atmosphere to it. Cell Block Tango, for instance, is heavily influenced by music strongly associated with the art of flamenco dancing while maybe the best musical number in the whole, Mr. Cellophane, has its own more restrained and somber melody that translates the troubled demeanor of Roxie's husband, Amos (John C. Reilly), into one helluva beautiful song. It does feel at times though like the various songs are coming at too rapid of a pace, it's hard to even take in their virtues when the movie has a tendency to be in too quick of a rush to get to the next musical number.
Similarly, I'd be lying if I said the movie didn't leave me feeling a bit too empty at times, with some characters (namely Velma Kelly) not getting enough personality to their name, which leaves big plot points or emotional turns involving said characters feeling more uninvolving than they should. I wish there was more substance to accompany the occasionally overly busy spectacle, but Chicago still manages to come off as a pretty fun experience with some truly exceptional musical numbers. Extra kudos for a great performance from Queen Latifah, who really deserved better roles in after this movie.
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