I decided to pick this film up from a showing recently on Showtime. The reason is I had an inkling that I might like musicals, since I like two of them, and I heard this was a classic. During the viewing, right off the bat, I did not like at least the first half of this film. I don’t know why, it was just too, fake I guess. The performances were just okay, and didn’t feel authentic, maybe too rehearsed. Catherine Zeta Jones was great in it, showed off her skills as a singer and dancer. Richard Gere was great as expected. The surprise standout for me was Renee Zellweger. I knew she is a great actress, but didn’t know how good and how well she can dance and sing. She impressed me a lot and was the star of the show. Queen Latifa was in the film as well. She played ‘Mama’, a successful prison leader. I was not that impressed with her performance, probably because singing and dancing is what she does for a living, its her acting that needs work. As the film progressed to the second half, near the ending, the last 20 minutes, I was finally getting more into it and was compelled to finish watching.
Spoilers…
Here is in a nutshell what the film was about. Rene’s character, Roxy was arrested for murdering her lover. She was sent to prison and had to get a lawyer to get an attempt to get out. The lawyer she hired was played by Richard Gere. He was successful at winning her freedom even though she freely admitted to the crime. In the end, Roxy and Catherine Zeta-Jones go on to a successful career as showgirls. Credits roll.
More on the problems I had with the film:
I thought the film could have done without the vast majority of the foul language, of which there was a lot of. I am not a prude, but I think maybe musicals should have a bit more class than regular Hollywood movies.
The other problem I had with the film was the morality of Richard Gere’s character, going out of his way to free his guilty client and set her free from her murder charge. I don’t know, I just think there was something wrong about that. It sort of glorified murder and set the penetrator free. This happens quite often in the movies so I probably shouldn’t harp on it.
In all, in the end, I did enjoy the second half of the film and for that reason, it garners three stars.
***
