all that jazz
just watched Chicago... slightly disappointing after all the awards and raves it received. It got off to a great start, but lost me after the tango in the cell block number.
Director Rob Marshall had a great cast and a proven formula to work with, but I guess the odds were against him - he's a first time big screen director, and adapting stage material for the cinema is one of the most difficult things to do in my opinion, and this is a musical to boot. Most of the time you end up with... well, this - a film that could have easily taken place on stage. The idea of adaptation, is to fully utilize the medium - i think he didn't take it far enough, it feels half-hearted. It's like he wanted the film to be big and in your face, but somehow the dancing shoes got too painful after a while. Chicago, while entertaining, was merely an assembly of the performers on the stage - it's as if he took his camera to record a live performance - the set-up, the chorus dancers, the use of spotlights. His vision was a literal translation of the musical, simply a movement from stage to celluloid. I found the dancer holding the scales of justice in the courtroom scene particularly laughable.
What a waste! He had a fantastic cast - particularly in Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah. Zeta-Jones sizzled as she always does, and Queen Latifah simply didn't get enough screen time. They absolutely deserve their Oscar nominations. Their performances were flawless and I just couldn't wait for them to appear again. Richard Gere was perfectly cast as the smarmy lawyer. And the guy who played Amos Hart - he was superb! But Renee Zellweger... I don't get the Oscar nomination - I think the Oscars need to create a category - Most Improved Performer - true, she's no newbie, but I feel like she's getting the nomination simply because she has come a distance from 'You had me at hello.' But sad to say, that's the politics of the Oscars and another story altogether. I wonder who else was up for the role. From the last scene, you can see that she can dance, but she somehow lacks the energy and pizzazz of Zeta-Jones, though technically her moves were better than the latter's.
Beyond the cast, the other under-utilized factor was exterior locations - there were hardly any at all. Yes, the musical takes place mostly indoors, but this is where you transform the vision. It's called making movie magic!!!! The other thing that bugged me was that for such a big budget film, there seemed to be some inexcusable errors - like the mic dropping into shot during the circus song, and I swear Zellweger had lipstick on her teeth. I know continuity is a shit job since I've done it before, but these were really obvious. And the editing seriously sucked. There was bad rhythm (and made worse by our censorship board!), no pacing - first third was great, then it just went all over. I don't know - maybe Marshall had a tight schedule to work with and this was the best he could do. So maybe this is all the producer's fault - never hire first-time big screen directors to do monster jobs like this.
All in all, it was entertaining, but forgettable except for the two ladies, the opening scene - a real tribute to Bob Fosse - and the ventriloquist scene. Watch the musical instead.
Director Rob Marshall had a great cast and a proven formula to work with, but I guess the odds were against him - he's a first time big screen director, and adapting stage material for the cinema is one of the most difficult things to do in my opinion, and this is a musical to boot. Most of the time you end up with... well, this - a film that could have easily taken place on stage. The idea of adaptation, is to fully utilize the medium - i think he didn't take it far enough, it feels half-hearted. It's like he wanted the film to be big and in your face, but somehow the dancing shoes got too painful after a while. Chicago, while entertaining, was merely an assembly of the performers on the stage - it's as if he took his camera to record a live performance - the set-up, the chorus dancers, the use of spotlights. His vision was a literal translation of the musical, simply a movement from stage to celluloid. I found the dancer holding the scales of justice in the courtroom scene particularly laughable.
What a waste! He had a fantastic cast - particularly in Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah. Zeta-Jones sizzled as she always does, and Queen Latifah simply didn't get enough screen time. They absolutely deserve their Oscar nominations. Their performances were flawless and I just couldn't wait for them to appear again. Richard Gere was perfectly cast as the smarmy lawyer. And the guy who played Amos Hart - he was superb! But Renee Zellweger... I don't get the Oscar nomination - I think the Oscars need to create a category - Most Improved Performer - true, she's no newbie, but I feel like she's getting the nomination simply because she has come a distance from 'You had me at hello.' But sad to say, that's the politics of the Oscars and another story altogether. I wonder who else was up for the role. From the last scene, you can see that she can dance, but she somehow lacks the energy and pizzazz of Zeta-Jones, though technically her moves were better than the latter's.
Beyond the cast, the other under-utilized factor was exterior locations - there were hardly any at all. Yes, the musical takes place mostly indoors, but this is where you transform the vision. It's called making movie magic!!!! The other thing that bugged me was that for such a big budget film, there seemed to be some inexcusable errors - like the mic dropping into shot during the circus song, and I swear Zellweger had lipstick on her teeth. I know continuity is a shit job since I've done it before, but these were really obvious. And the editing seriously sucked. There was bad rhythm (and made worse by our censorship board!), no pacing - first third was great, then it just went all over. I don't know - maybe Marshall had a tight schedule to work with and this was the best he could do. So maybe this is all the producer's fault - never hire first-time big screen directors to do monster jobs like this.
All in all, it was entertaining, but forgettable except for the two ladies, the opening scene - a real tribute to Bob Fosse - and the ventriloquist scene. Watch the musical instead.