Chicago is fun and funny. It works as an old fashioned movie musical, which will delight old time movie musical fans. It is shot and edited with a fast-paced style that will help young audiences enjoy this old-fashioned form.

From almost the very first moment, Chicago is captivating. The opening number, “All That Jazz,” performed with tremendous appeal by Catherine Zeta Jones, is my favorite number in this fantastic resurrection of the movie musical. But I took deep breaths and vowed not to get overly gushy right away.

Yet Chicago becomes, somewhere along the way, irresistible. The story is deliciously timely and raunchy. Based on a 1920s court case in Chicago, the story of Roxie Hart had been the source of two movies and a play before World War II ended. Chicago arrives in theaters to remind us that Illinois has been famous for corruption in its political and justice system for almost a century. This musical movie reminder comes just as all prisoners on Illinois’ death row have had their sentences commuted because the governor believed, after studying the report his commission produced, that the system doesn’t work and still has its share of prosecutorial misconduct.

Roxie Hart is a timid chorus line girl who wants to be a star in her own vaudville show. She’s having an affair with a guy she believes can help her get more attention. When she finds out he’s just saying anything to get in her pants, she shoots and kills him in a rage. In jail, she meets Velma Kelly, a big star who used to be part of a sister act until she found her sister with her husband and shot and killed them both. Chicago is about their efforts, with the help of their slick lawyer Billy Flynn, to get out of jail and back on the stage.

This screen version of Chicago is based on the 1975 Broadway show directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, with the delightful score by John Kander and Fred Ebb and a book by Fosse and Ebb. Fosse had wanted to bring Chicago to the screen, but he spent years working out how best to translate the picture to the screen and died before he could make that vision happen.

After various drafts and personalities and delays, Chicago has arrived, and the team that has brought it to life have shown tremendous respect and admiration for Fosse, Kander and Ebb. Some of this was enforced by contract. Kander and Ebb have it in their contract that no new songs would be added to the show, which almost certainly kept certain undesirable elements out of the project.

Chicago stays very close to the original book and music. Bill Condon, who won an Oscar for his screenplay of Gods and Monsters, wrote the Chicago screenplay. The story has been shifted a bit to favor Roxie over Velma and to play up the shifty lawyer and system corruption that gave the 90s stage revival an echo of O.J. that boosted its timeliness.

Rob Marshall makes his feature film directorial debut with Chicago. Marshall comes from a background and theater and directed the very popular recent television version of Annie. He has done a remarkable job with Chicago. The songs are split between fitting into the narrative and slipping into Roxie’s fantasy life. They are delightfully staged, with the camera jumping around enough to keep Chicago energized, perhaps too much for some tastes, but the pacing suits the flashy phoniness of the story.

Marshall’s big achievment is what he gets from his actors. The performances are pleasantly above expectation, astonishingly accomplished for performers not known for singing and dancing. Some are more amazing than others. It isn’t surprising that Queen Latifah is fantastic as Mama Morton. “When You’re Good to Mama” is pure naughty pleasure. The song and that dress! Yikes! The ladies in this movie are everything mothers have warned their sons about for generations!

The other ladies are also wonderful. Zeta Jones is just a knockout singing and dancing. Marshall cut the ballad “Class,” a duet between Jones and Queen Latifah, which must have been hard for them, but it is easy to believe he’s protecting them and the film. What we get to see of Jones helps erase the impression of those awful phone commercials that are all over the television.

Rene Zellweger is also a pleasant surprise. Not as strong as a singer or a dancer, still her tiny little speaking voice is flexed bigger than I would have guessed possible. And she just looks amazing. When she is staged to suggest Marilyn Monroe in a “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” mode, her figure may not fill Marilyn’s “shoes,” but she sends the same sexy message.

Even Richard Gere, who is no natural singer and dancer, puts it across well as Billy Flynn. He’s having fun, and that helps, and the careful editing and staging help make his big number, “Give ‘em the Old Razzle Dazzle,” a high point of the film. The number itself is perhaps, the most timely sentiment in the film. While Chicago has much to say about our obsession with celebrity and our acceptance of the infamous as well as the famous, the razzle dazzle Billy Flynn sings about feels closest to what we’re living through lately. “Give ’em the old razzle dazzle” — Isn’t that what we’ve been getting from Enron, World Com and too many others for at least a year now?

But the pleasures of Chicago are more spontaneous and immediate. It is a pleasant change of pace to walk out of the theater and debate with your friends what your favorite “number” in the film is. Even if you don’t really like musicals, Chicago is worth a look. It could easily make you a believer, especially if you enjoy being shamelessly hustled.