It's all that jazz--and a whole lot more. This breezy adaptation does the Bob Fosse Broadway hit justice by turning it into a movie instead of a stagey adaptation. The flick interweaves fantasy song-and-dance numbers into a realistic story of murder, infidelity and fleeting fame. Renée Zellweger is a young show-biz hopeful whose dreams get sidetracked when she's arrested for shooting her lover.
While in the can, she meets her idol (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a vaudeville star incarcerated for offing her philandering husband, as well as legendary lawyer Richard Gere, who makes the young chorine into a tabloid star. Zellweger makes a plucky protagonist, even if she lacks the musical razzle-dazzle of her costars. Gere, who oozes an oily charm, croons passably in a couple of numbers and also displays some fancy footwork. And the reliable John C. Reilly steals the movie with his downbeat showstopper. Slickly produced and infectiously energetic, this toe-tapping musical high-kicks butt.