Chicago

I finally got the chance I needed to sneak off and watch Chicago – and guess what!?! It's a musical! Who knew?

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

I love a good musical, and this was a good musical. However . . .

In my mind, the bar was set really, REALLY high, and I really, REALLY wanted this movie to be great. And it wasn't quite what I had hoped to see. This is the one musical I desperately wanted to see on Broadway – with the revival cast that I had heard about. The revival cast that blew me away on the Tony Awards show. The revival cast that knocked the New York critics on their ass. I love Bob Fosse's choreography – the style and flair that he brought to all of his dance numbers.

My problem with this movie is that it didn't really have that Fosse stamp to it. It had occasional flashes of it. In the beginning – especially in the opening production staring Catherine Zeta-Jones. The editing was tight and Fossesque, and the dancers had some of that signature style. But the longer the film went on, the less it had.

This is nitpicking, but here are some more things that I didn't like:

Rob Marshall lifted Catherine Zeta-Jones costuming straight off of Bebe Neuwirth's dressing room from her run on Broadway. And while CZJ did a very, very – surprisingly very – good job in the role, it always looked like Bebe had put on weight and lost a bit of zing off her dancing. It would have been so simple to give her a style of her own, while maintaining the period –that Roaring 20s Chicago.

Richard Gere is excellent in the role of Billy Flynn – but it seemed to me his characterization came right out of Roy Scheider's turn in Fosse's autobiographical All That Jazz. This made it ironic – since it felt like the opening dance number, the previously mentioned star turn by CZJ, had a tiny bit of that Fosse flair because it was integral to, wow – All That Jazz.

The finale was terrific – it had great pace, it had style, it had sex appeal. But it was missing that signature Fosse thing with the hands. If you watch anything choreographed by Bob Fosse, you notice the hands. Just like hula dancers – the hands tell a big part of the story.

As a musical, this was terrific. But as a movie version of a Bob Fosse musical, it was lacking.

Would I see it again? Yes.

Was I surprised at how good Rene Zellwhatever was? Very.

Was John C. Reilly a gem as Amos, the cuckolded husband? Completely.

But was it Bob Fosse? Nope. And that was disappointing.

More soon.