Chicago

The John Kander-Fred Ebb musical about a murder-trial media circus in 1927 comes (at last) to the screen, with Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones as the killers and Richard Gere as the lawyer who represents them. Writer Bill Condon and director Rob Marshall re-imagine the vaudeville-style show for the screen while preserving its acid satire intact. The phantom at the feast, of course, is the show’s original director, the late Bob Fosse. Marshall reproduces the sultry, angular eroticism of Fosse’s dance style, though not his fluid camera work; instead, Marshall resorts to flashy, MTV-style editing. It’s a trick used when the performers can’t hold the screen on their own, but it’s not needed here; they’re all natural musical performers. Others in the cast are Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly.