May 12, 2003 12:20 PM
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(Updated May 12, 2003 12:29 PM)
A late night english movie in a good theater after dinner. I hadn't been this good to myself in a long time. It felt good to be going to watch an A-grade, all-star-cast Oscar material movie; especially after having watched a string of c-grade hindi movies.
Anyway, I settled into the plush balcony seats in the theater. What I saw for the next 90 minutes eroded my faith in what to expect from big banner english movies.
The story as all the previous reviews have already said, is about Velma Kelly, an established & famous club artiste, Roxie Hart, a house-wife with starry ambitions and Bill Flynn, a smooth talking, maneuvering lawyer who has never lost a case; Played by Catherine Zeta Jones, Renee Zelwegger and Richard Gere respectively.
What I saw was a mixed bag of several themes. It was a dance-musical. It had a women empowerment kind of theme. It had a 20's style high-living theme. It was about sleaze. It was about the weakness of the judicial system in those days. It was about betrayal and selfish motives. It was about using any means necessary to get to an end.
Rather, it COULD have been about any of these themes. Instead, the makers of the film chose to make a passing comment of each of these themes. Every time the story seemed to take an interesting turn, the characters broke out into a dance and song. It was unnerving to say the least. The story itself was ordinary. Infact the characters looked almost comic-book like. They did not have much depth at all. Theres a lawyer who has never won a case. He says that he doesnt care about money and only cares for love. But throughout he is shown to be working only for money, self-interest and fame. Velma is the successful and famous dancer-singer. Roxie is the housewife who willing to be a tramp to realise her ambition of having her own stage show! All women jailed in the penitentiary are (helpless) victims of jealousy and cheating lovers, lead to murder.
I will leave you guys to watch the movie yourselves and see the ending yourselves. But as usual, having been left bewildered and unhappy, I came up with a few questions -
How did Velma Kelly come out of the jail if Bill Flynn didn't help her? Did the director of the movie intend to make an out-and-out musical? If yes, then why did he have to do an overkill on the music and dance? If he wanted to convey a deep-rooted message for any of the themes mentioned above then why did he not use the excellent acting talent of the star cast more? Why were the characters trivialised so much? Why does the story seem to tell us that the 20's was all about sleaze and cheating; as if the years before that and after were better? Why does the director automatically have to link the 20's with dance and music?
It was a pity that excellent acting talent was wasted on trivial characters, a wishy-washy story, song and dance.
A film like Moulin Rouge did a better job of employing dance and music in its story. I wish Miramax had come up with something better.
