I will grant you, I never wanted to see this film. So I may be biased, but this movie was terrible. Renee Zellweger is Roxie Hart, a wannabe actor who sleeps around with anyone who she thinks can get her into show biz. She has no talent, no morals (she is married to a boring man named Amos (John Reily) and no brains. This she proves 5 minutes into the film by killing one of her lovers (one who said she was a actor’s agent but was not). She gets arrested, thrown in jail and put on trial, what happens to her is a main part of the plot. Zellweger is a good actress generally, but she isn’t the best at projecting ’’sexy’’...her acting seemed empty to me.
Catherine Zeta Jones plays Velma Kelly...another scumbag woman who kills her manager/lover is ends up in the next cell to Roxie. She is more hardbitten than Roxie and smarter too, the two end up rivals, mostly because Roxie’s crime steals the spotlight from Velma’s (blech)...Zeta Jones plays her role well, I just happen to hate the role.
Richard Gere plays a slick, greasy slimeball lawyer Billy Flynn who’s speciality is defending gulity women who kill their husbands and lovers. he has a ’’interesting’’ way of doing so, he jumps around the courtroom and makes absolutely no sense..(I don’t think there was one reason how Velma’s and Roxy’s trials ended the way they did...I guess singing and acting like a jackass is a valid legal defense. Gere is a decent actor, and for what he is asked to do he delivers...it isn’t much of a role.
Queen Latifah plays the women’s jail warden, all she does is get bribed by the prisoners (she also sings a song)...She is o.k..she does’nt do too much.
I guess I failed to mention this is a musical, and as such the talent is there, the songs were well-done...but none really appealed to me. I do realize plot is secondary to the musical numbers in a musical, but man the plot reeked, I would’ve fallen asleep if I wasnt on a date!
What bugs me the most about this movie is how absolutely everyone was selfish, backstabbing, and generally evil (except for Roxie’s husband, he was just a moron), Now, I like evil in a movie if there is a purpose to it (world domination, a big bank heist, etc) but there is no purpose to these people, they are evil just for the heck of it. I felt a bit dumber just by sitting through this tripe.