Noir-vember: Chicago (2002)

The fact that Chicago is as good as it is seems to be a testament to the songs, the staging, and some of the casting. I don't think Renée Zellweger feels right in the main role, and I never have, but she does well enough to try and keep up with absolutely superb turns from Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, Richard Gere, and John C. Reilly.

Things start with Zeta-Jones, playing Velma Kelly. We see her performing a routine, "All That Jazz", that she used to perform with her sister. She's now a solo act, having murdered her sister. She hopes to do alright in the long run though, having the allure of celebrity on her side, as well as a smooth and brilliant lawyer, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). She ends up begrudgingly moved out of the spotlight, however, when Roxie Hart (Zellweger) is jailed for the killing of her lover. Roxie may not have had any profile before the crime, but she sure knows how to create one now, especially with a little help from Matron Mama Morton (Latifah). Cold-blooded and ambitious, Roxie not only wants to escape an appointment with the hangman, she wants to turn her celebrity status into something that lasts after she gets out of prison. But getting out of prison will also depend on, yes, the suave Billy Flynn.

Adapted for the screen by Bill Condon, who has the benefit of great source material to work from, Chicago holds up as one of the best musicals of the 21st century, and, despite the period setting, works very well as a look at the constant allure of celebrity and the way famous people can take advantage of their position to manipulate a narrative. Director Rob Marshall does a hell of a job with his first cinematic release, arguably delivering a debut that he never bettered (although I am saying that before having seen absolutely everything in his filmography).

I don't want to feel as if I'm being overly rude so I'll just say that Zellweger remains the weakest part of the movie, albeit perfectly fine when supported by the many others doing much better work. Zeta-Jones loves every minute of her vamp character, and the film sizzles when she's onscreen, Latifah is a lot of fun, and gets a great number that introduces her character, and Gere is such a perfect fit for his role that it's unsurprising that he ends up involved in the two of the most well-staged numbers in the film. Reilly plays a wonderful sap, somehow making you feel sorry for him every time he is used and betrayed, and there's also room for enjoyable moments that involve Taye Diggs, Dominic West, Colm Feore, Lucy Liu, and the inimitable Christine Baranski.

But let's face it, a musical lives or dies by the musical numbers. This is what makes Chicago such a satisfying watch. The songs are catchy, the choreography is inventive and fun, and it's very rewatchable. "All That Jazz" might be the one that everyone knows, and was the only one I was familiar with when I first watched the film, but "When You're Good To Mama", "Cell Block Tango", "We Both Reached For The Gun", "I Can't Do It Alone", "Mr. Cellophane", and "Razzle Dazzle" are all brilliant in different ways, not to mention the other numbers that help to make up the runtime. 

It really is a shame about that bit of mis-casting, but the rest of the film is so good that it still comes very close to being a bit of a modern classic. Maybe one day I'll be able to overlook my biggest problem with it. Not today though.

8/10

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The Little Mermaid (2023)

I have been wanting to see The Little Mermaid ever since grown adults started crying and spitting their dummies out over the fact that the lead role had gone to a young black woman. Because, apparently, mermaids can appear onscreen in various incarnations, but making them non-white is an affront to the firmly-held beliefs people suddenly claimed to have about fictional citizens of the sea. Despite wanting to see it, I didn’t make time for it while it was at the cinema because I just cannot work up any enthusiasm for the ongoing Disney remake factory (some may claim this is less a remake, more a reworking of the source material, and I have to politely disagree).

People should already know the story, but here is the very basic summary. A mermaid named Ariel (Halle Bailey) keeps spending her time thinking about humans and the world above the surface of the sea, much to the chagrin of her father, King Triton (Javier Bardem). She then falls in love with a human, Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), and ends up signing up to a Faustian pact with the scheming Ursula (Melissa McCarthy). Ariel gets to walk on land, giving her a chance to meet the Prince, but she has her lovely voice removed, as well as the memory of the deal made with Ursula.

Directed by the very capable Rob Marshall, The Little Mermaid has a number of pleasantly surprising positives. The casting of Bailey is one of the biggest, with the actress proving to be a wonderful choice for the lead role, presenting herself as believably lovely and tuneful (when she has her voice). The production design throughout, the overall look of the film whenever showing the underwater world, is very good, and there are a number of fairly realistic CG creations accompanying our lead character on her journey. It’s also worth mentioning that there are supporting roles for the excellent Noma Dumezeni and Art Malik.

The script isn’t particularly great, with David Magee responsible for the thankless task of updating the animated film while trying to balance the familiar and the fresh. He doesn’t succeed, sadly, with the familiar moments just ensuring that viewers will remember how much they love the earlier incarnation, and he’s also hampered by the fact that things have to come crashing to a halt at one point for a horrible and lifeless song to be sung by the bland Prince Eric. A few other songs work better, but they’re mostly the ones lifted from the earlier film (although Awkwafina, who voices the seagull named Scuttle, gets a very fun number).

Dull Prince aside, I enjoyed almost everyone else here, whether just in voice form or more fully shown onscreen. Daveed Diggs is a decent Sebastian, Jacob Tremblay is a good fit for Flounder, and Awkwafina is a lot of fun. McCarthy is someone I always tend to enjoy onscreen, and I am happy to say that her portrayal of Ursula is as entertaining as I expected it to be.

All in all, despite this feeling just as unnecessary as every other time that Disney does this kind of thing, The Little Mermaid is enjoyable enough. It has a better variety of representation and cultural texture than the animated film, but it suffers from the inherent disadvantage of turning cute cartoons into “real-life” imagery.

6/10

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Into The Woods (2014)

From my very limited experience of Stephen Sondheim, I have to say that I'm not a big fan. I'm not sure what I'm missing that everyone else gets from his work, but I certainly seem to be missing something. Of course, I've not yet seen any of his works on the stage, where they may shine at their brightest, but this is my second time viewing a movie based on his work. The first time was Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. I didn't love it. Yet I didn't dislike it either. It grew on me. The only thing I still don't love about it was, unfortunately, most of the soundtrack. I left the screening of Into The Woods trying hard not to hate it.

The story is as follows: a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) are unable to have children. They are offered the chance to change the situation by a witch (Meryl Streep), and to appease her they must find a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, a golden shoe, and hair as yellow as corn. The witch then disappears in a swirl of witchiness, leaving the baker and his wife to cross paths with Jack (Daniel Huddlestone), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) and Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy).

It's a star-studded affair, no doubt about it, with some lovely production values and competent direction from Rob Marshall. But it's also such a drab, lifeless affair that I can't see anyone being overjoyed by it, except perhaps fans of the stage show (and even they may be disappointed by the handling of the material - as can happen with anything being adapted into movie form). The script, written by James Lapine and Sondheim, seems to spend a lot of time wringing comedy from the fact that it's so amusing and sly and subversive when it's not. People have been reworking and twisting fairy tales almost as long as fairy tales have been around, and this plot throws everything around in pretty haphazard manner that never allows viewers to forget that different elements are being shoehorned in to fit alongside one another.

The cast all do a decent job though, so that's another plus point. Streep is a fun witch, Kendrick is suitably sweet as Cinderella, and Corden and Blunt do their best to make their characters likable (although it's a struggle). Crawford and Huddlestone both feel right for their roles, and they get their fair share of screentime, which is more than can be said for poor Mackenzie Mauzy. She's consigned to little more than a bit part, and is given very little to do when she IS onscreen. Chris Pine steals the show as a dashing prince, Billy Magnussen tries hard as another prince, Tracey Ullman is underused (playing Jack's mother), Johnny Depp has an enjoyable cameo, playing The Wolf, and Christine Baranski, Tammy Blanchard and Lucy Punch prove to be consistently entertaining as the evil family unit that Cinderella is stuck with.

Despite my own opinion of the film, it's worth noting that this is already a big success at the box office, and probably nowhere near its final total haul yet. So perhaps many other people are taking something away from it that I missed. Like an appreciation of Sondheim's talent.

4/10

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