Nice movie, but not great

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2003)

I saw Chicago before seeing Moulin Rouge. Maybe this was my fault. I came with very high hopes for this one, as many say it was the reason for Chicago's success. I have to say, it is a very foreseeable movie, the story is a classical Hollywood soap-opera, and music and dancing are really just for "decoration": The focus is always on story (the final play says it all). Unfortunately, the story didn't catch, and I wasn't touched by it a single moment.
The music is not bad, if you like to recognize famous songs played a bit different. Even so, I couldn't find a single song that stayed with me, and most of them are cut to less than a minute! As I said, the focus is really on the story, which is bad enough to spoil even the rare moments of good music.
Anyway, the dancing is really missing, and it could have been so much better! Except for the tango scene (which is not great, but I suppose it's the best scene in the entire movie: you should see Asfalt Tango for a much better one), I always had a feeling of frustration, trying to see the dance and moves, but the cutting and camera moves didn't allow.
I think the greatest achievement of this movie is turning the attention of the audience towards musicals, and making possible the success of later movies, like Chicago. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would give 7.