Chicago (2002) Parents Guide: Is the movie OK for kids?

Bontent's parent guide suggests Chicago is best for ages 13+. It's rated PG-13. The Oscar-winning musical adaptation about fame, murder, and show business in 1920s Chicago. Dazzling, funny, and stylised. The PG-13 rating covers depictions of murder (two women kill their lovers), sexual content, and…

Chicago is officially rated PG-13. Bontent's independent parent guide recommends it for ages 13+.

The Oscar-winning musical adaptation about fame, murder, and show business in 1920s Chicago. Dazzling, funny, and stylised. The PG-13 rating covers depictions of murder (two women kill their lovers), sexual content, and period language. The murders are all performed as musical numbers — making them theatrical rather…

The film opens with Roxie's lover and her in bed. Multiple scenes of sexual performance and suggestion in the jazz club setting. Brief nudity. The women use sex as power throughout.

Multiple murders — all stylised as musical/theatrical sequences. Shootings and stabbings, none graphic. The violence is presented as performance art rather than realism.

Mild-to-moderate for the rating. The film's edge comes from its attitude rather than its language.

Set during the Prohibition era, characters frequently drink whiskey and various spirits in jazz clubs and speakeasies. Smoking is also omnipresent, with cigarette use occurring in almost every scene to establish the 1920s atmosphere. While legal infractions…

Fame as the ultimate American value — more important than justice or truth. The justice system as show business. Two murderers who become celebrities. The film is a satire of a media culture that makes stars of killers — its targets are as contemporary as…

Chicago runs 113 minutes, directed by Rob Marshall, released in 2002.

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