Nine

In one of the most anticipated films of the Oscar season, Rob Marshall directs the adaptation of the Broadway musical, Nine. The film stars a studded-cast of A-list celebrities including Academy Award Winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Oscar Nominee Kate Hudson, and Stacy Ferguson a.k.a. Fergie. What the film is proud of is ultimately its failure.

Marshall, Oscar nominated for his breakthrough directorial debut Chicago, lost all the flavor and originality we once respected him for. The performances of most are right on target; get the job done, and sure to break through some awards buzz this season. The narrative by Michael Tolkin and the late Anthony Minghella is flat, unemotional, and vacant. The songs are tedious and a bit monotonous in their delivery, despite the cast surprisingly having good vocal chops. You would think that a big time musical such as Nine would have big notes that engage the viewer, and an interpretation that would move the viewer. None of those occur often enough in the film. Nine is not a failure, it just suffers major malfunctions that don't keep the machine moving.

Daniel Day-Lewis helms the picture as Guido Contini, an Italian director looking for inspiration for his next film. Day-Lewis gives a solid effort which we haven't seen from him before but in comparison to his previous works in There Will Be Blood and Gangs of New York, he doesn't elevate the material as often or doesn't translate his musical numbers like he should. When he's not singing, Day-Lewis is in charge, in top form, and showing what he's always excelled at, decode a character's feelings and become an inferno of talent.

Marion Cotillard is easily the most sentimental and profound player in the entire picture playing the heartrending Luisa, Guido's adulterated wife. What Cotillard has demonstrated beyond any type of acting capacity, a sexy, stylish, and devastating performance. With her two musical numbers, "Take It All" and "My Husband Makes Movies," Cotillard improves and exalts one of the most poignant performances of the year. This is the single performance of the film that Oscar shouldn't miss out on.

Nicole Kidman, Oscar winning actress for The Hours, is as wasted as she is unimportant playing the beautiful Claudia, Guido's muse for his film. Kidman's one big scene of the film becomes a borefest of words that have no verbal value to the viewer or the story. Unfortunately Kidman is the forgettable cast mate that is ultimately invisible. She's unused, underwritten, and employed as movie wallpaper. For shame.

Judi Dench as the costume designer Lilli has one big musical number which again is uninspired and lackluster. She has charisma in her speaking scenes and sort of upstages Day-Lewis much of the time, she eventually falls victim to a bland, insipid account.

Sophia Loren, the beautiful veteran Italian actress plays Mamma as in Guido's Mom, and gives a presence of royalty that the film lacks. She walks through the film with a manifestation of poise and allure.

Kate Hudson, as the cute Stephanie, the fashion critic for Vogue Magazine, is surprisingly fresh and fun. Her "Cinema Italiano" is one of the more pleasurable and enjoyable numbers in the film. It's nice to see Hudson give a bright, inventive cinematic turn in lines with her Oscar nominated work in Almost Famous.

Fergie is one of the sexier parts of the film as Saraghina, the lust of Guido's adolescence. Her "Be Italian" in terms of vocal capability is the best of the movie experience. Big notes, modern-like, and innovativeness, Fergie is one of the memorable players here but in terms of actual "acting," she's never given the chance to show what she can do.

Penelope Cruz, in one of her most aggressive and provocative turns yet plays the luscious Carla, Guido's married mistress. Cruz, in the film's opening number, is eager and provides hope to what seemed was going to be a promising experience. Along with Cotillard, Cruz is an Oscar worthy player. Fascinating, passionate, and enthusiastic along encompasses the traits in Ms. Cruz's arsenal.

Technically, the film sits very well. A stunning art director controlling the date and time of Marshall's film is quite good. Dion Beebe regulates our essential point of view and how dazzling it can look despite any flaws narratively. At it again, Colleen Atwood shows how she's one of the top designers in the business. Marshall in the end copycats himself, which is not a directorial style rather a Chicago-repeat without the razzle-dazzle.

Consequently, Rob Marshall's Nine isn't terrible, which doesn't say much. It's passable, average, and done before. It may not have been the screen writers liability for the strikeout, it's just an un-fascinating and awkwardly weak show. Nine, the film, however, is awkwardly coy, which is not an imaginative sense that the viewer anticipated. Nine in the end, in the finale, walking out of the theater, everything you thought about it, levels out just fine, which I guess is admirable. Is it Oscar bound? Unfortunately yes.

**½/****

I was surprised when Rob Marshall's Chicago took home the Oscar for Best Picture. A great movie but not my choice for best of 2002 (that I would award to Gangs of New York). All that aside, Marshall hasn't done much since. Only one movie, Memoirs of a Geisha, which I for some reason have neglected to see (I try to watch films that win for best cinematography). That's all beside the point. In his third film, Marshall goes back to his theatre roots and tackles another musical.

This time he has chosen Nine, a re-imagining of Federico Fellini's classic film 8 1/2. Already I am skeptical of the situation. I am fine with musicals. Some of the best films on celluloid have been musicals. What I have a problem with is the reworking of such a classic film like 8 1/2. It would take a lot of convincing to win me over. Unfortunately, it did not succeed.

Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Guido Contini, an Italian director who is planning on making the most important Italian film ever call Italia. The only problem is he hasn't written a script yet. To guide him he turns to the women in his life. His late mother (Sofia Loren), his wife Marion Cotillard, his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his costume designer and closest friend (Judi Dench), a fashion reporter (Kate Hudson), a childhood temptress Saraghina (Stacey "Fergie" Ferguson) and his leading lady (Nicole Kidman).

Contini tries to escape the pressure looming overhead by the media, his producers, and his cast and crew. He is constantly searching for the answer, bouncing around from one person to another. That's really all there is. He talks to people, sleeps around, and goes into his past.

Right off the bat there is a slight problem. There are too many women! Not just for Contini but for the audience. There are too many big name actresses with almost equal parts. Who is more important? Who should we side with? It seems like he has such a close relationship with some of them and hardly any with others, yet they all practically get the same amount of screen time. They all have at least one song to their own.

That is another problem with the film. The musical aspect is distracting from the story. The music for the most part is average. A few songs like "Be Italian" and the Oscar nominated "Take it All" are very good, but for the most part, it's all bells and whistles. Like he did with Chicago, Marshall takes us from the real world of dialogue to the imaginary world of singing and dancing. My issue with this is that he spends an almost equal amount of time in both places. With Chicago, there was more story divulged in the real world. Nine has too much singing and not enough story telling.

The musical numbers are impressive, in particular the two songs I mentioned. Fergie really flexes the golden pipes with "Be Italian," a fun and sexy number that for me was the highlight of the film. Cotillard's number was also one of the better ones. This was a more emotional struggle and was one of the few numbers I felt really connected with the story. Kidman and Cruz each have decent numbers, and Dench's number is a bit over the top. She is better with the real world scenes.

I guess Marshall tried to replicate what he did with Chicago but came up short. I never was invested with any of the characters and Lewis' performance was not quite what I was looking for. I would have loved to have seen Raul Julia, the original Guido Contini from the first Broadway production, or even Antonio Banderas in the revival. I think someone with a more musical background would have been a more acceptable choice, but nevertheless, Lewis does a fairly decent job.

"Nine" has taken the same circuitous route to the big screen as "The Producers" did a few years back. First, it started out life as a beloved movie - in this case, Fellini's classic 1963 "8 ½" - then got itself reincarnated in the form of a Broadway musical (undergoing a name change in the process); finally it got adapted back into a movie by the trusty hands of Hollywood, much to the consternation, apparently, of most of the nation's film critics.

The original movie was a phantasmagoric blending of memory, reality and wish-fulfillment fantasy, focused on a major Italian film director caught in creative crisis (a figure obviously based on Fellini himself). Daniel Day-Lewis takes on the role, made famous by Marcello Mastroianni, of the filmmaker (now named Guido Contini) who "has nothing left to say" - either as a man or as an artist - a man so harried and hounded by producers, subordinates, reporters, detractors, sycophants, and assorted hangers-on that he sneaks away for a rest-cure at an out-of-the-way health spa. With all his creative juices dried up and feeling that he will have a nervous breakdown if he has to make even one more statement or executive decision regarding his film, Guido, like many of us, believes he will find the peace he so desperately yearns for by retreating from the outside world. But Guido soon discovers that there is no escaping from the people and pressures of the world in which we live - nor from our religious and familial upbringing - for they are each of them an integral part of the fabric that makes us who we are.

Visually, "Nine" captures all the flash, dash and excitement of life among the glitterati in the Eternal City circa 1965. In terms of plot and incident, the Michael Tolkin/Anthony Minghella screenplay (itself derived from Arthur Kopit's Broadway adaptation) follows the original fairly closely, but what's missing is the spark of cinematic genius that Fellini alone could bring to the material. But can one reasonably have expected that, anyway? As a director, Rob Marshall does an impressive job re-staging the dramatic portions, but he certainly doesn't have Fellini's flair for the carnival-like atmosphere that became a signature feature of all his later works (but, then again, who does?). However, as he did in "Chicago," Marshall demonstrates that he knows how to slide in and out of the musical numbers without being unduly jarring about it. That's particularly challenging given that most of the numbers - which serve as reflections of the characters' thoughts and feelings and the movie's themes - are done largely on surrealistic soundstages, as opposed to the on-location filming of the non-musical portions of the movie.

No surprise, Day-Lewis is superb as the dashing but world-weary director (truly as much a celebrity as an artist), perfectly capturing the angst, frustration and conflict taking place deep within the soul of a creator who still has so much to say - despite his protestations to the contrary - but not the slightest clue of how to say it. Guido is clearly trying to be a good person, but all those inner demons are doing their best to thwart him at virtually every turn. There are many moving moments of deep introspection, as Guido contemplates the direction of his life and the effect his actions are having on the people he loves. I'm going to go out on a limb here, and it may sound like blasphemy even to say this, but Day-Lewis lets us see his character's pain in a way that even Mastroianni himself did not. Interestingly, by tamping down some of Fellini's cinematic "distancing devices" and icy-cool tone, the movie actually allows us to relate with Guido on a more personal level and to care more deeply about his plight.

Marion Cotillard replaces Anouk Aimee as Guido's devoted but long-suffering wife who knows about her husband's infidelity and who suspects he has become a filmmaker as a means both of avoiding having to deal with real life and of achieving personal forgiveness and redemption for himself; Penelope Cruz stars as Guido's flighty mistress, whose sudden appearance at the spa throws Guido's world into a tizzy; and Sophia Loren puts in an occasional appearance as Guido's recently deceased mother who gives him words of advice and comfort from beyond the grave. Nicole Kidman portrays Claudia, the beautiful young starlet who loves Guido but ultimately refuses to be just another of his numerous "conquests." Judi Dench plays the fashion designer who appears to be the one level-headed and brutally honest person whom Guido can turn to for advice and support. And all of them are excellent.

One thing that "Nine" has going for it that "8 ½" didn't is the perspective that comes with the passage of time. When the original was released, it WAS "Italian Cinema" - and everything that went along with that term. As a result, the movie was totally unconscious of itself and the place it and other films of its time period would occupy in movie history. "Nine," with the ability to look back on the era from a much later perspective, is able to convey all this in a way that those earlier films, including "8 ½" itself, could not. In this sense, "Nine" sees "8 ½" more as an artifact than as the contemporary trailblazer it was in its time.

As with all remakes and "re-imaginings" of classic works, we must finally ask ourselves the crucial question: "Is this trip really necessary?" I think in the case of "Nine," I will have to go with "Yes" - or, if not "necessary," at least audacious and stimulating. "8 ½" aficionados and Fellini purists may have trouble warming up to this version, but I see it not as a denigration of the master and his great work, but as a tribute to them.

Guido Contini, a famous Italian director, is struggling with his next big film. He has no script and no inspiration, but everyone is counting on him. He tries to juggle both his new film, his wife, his mistress, his producer and his muse. Oh yeah, he also talks to his dead mother.

Nine is an ambitious film, I'll give it that. Rob Marshall, the director of the Best Picture winner Chicago serves up a mix bag with Nine. The film feels like Marshall is trying to rekindle the magic he had with Chicago, he comes up short, specifically with the musical numbers. For everything that I liked about it, there were two things I didn't. Nine needs to be more focused and shorter for it to be a film I would recommend.

The film is about film-making, yet the way Marshall presents the film to us is in the style of a stage play. Everything from the set-pieces to lighting screams stage play. It was an interesting touch, but felt out of place because it dealt with the art of film-making so much. The musical numbers, all uninspiring and rather boring, even attest to this. With the exception of Fergie, who gives us the best song and dance number that uses sand in a creative way, all the other numbers are generic and rather 'not good'. When you have a Grammy winner singing a song and then have Kate Hudson sing one, there is a difference, and it is more noticeable than the filmmakers might have wanted.

Nine has a great cast, most of them are Oscar winners too. Daniel Day Lewis, with an amazing Italian accent, is the obvious stand out. He plays sexy and stressed all in one look. Penelope Cruz is the mistress, who has the sexiest scene of this movie, her career and this year. Her work in this film is pretty basic, the other lover who wants to be the one loved. With the exception of DDL, the only other actor that is given any kind of emotional depth is Marion Cotillard. She has to go through the realization that her husband is cheating on her and make the choice to stay or leave. Everyone else is pretty much there to fill up time and sing their one song. Judie Dench is the fashion designer and she plays a motherly figure, whereas Sophia Loren plays his actual mother, well his dead mother, but he still sees and talks to her. Fergie has her one scene in which she steals the show with her tune and then Nicole Kidman turns up at the end and makes you wince with her accent. Don't get me started on Kate Hudson.

The problem is that these are good actors, with just no material to work with. Daniel Day Lewis is great, but he's a hard character to connect with, he's sleeping around with a lot of women, it feels like half the cast. Emotional scenes don't play out as well as they should and the film drags itself to the finish line near the end. I found myself wanting it to end sooner and sooner, but it kept going.

On the plus side, the choreography is great and the cinematography really grabs you, even if it is a little misplace with it's stage feel. The film is well put together and the editing is well done. It weaves it's story in and out of timelines from Guido's life, during the musical numbers. The film isn't bad, but it didn't do anything for me either. Leaving a musical not tapping your toes or even remembering the tunes may be a bad sign. I liked it enough to give it a good rating, the cast and style are good enough for me to do so, but everything else makes me lean on the side of telling you to rent this. It's well made, but has no real heart and the film is a little on the long side, you may be checking your watch.

The song numbers of "Nine" are really very well-staged with all those fantastic actresses in this Oscar-winning stellar cast. "A Call from the Vatican" by Penelope Cruz is very sexy and playful. "Folies Bergere" by Judi Dench is nothing like what you have seen her do before. "Be Italian" by Fergie is very sensual with unique choreography, and for me the best number of the whole film. "Cinema Italiano" by Kate Hudson is decidedly faster-paced and modern with lyrics that are meaningful to the story, but her character seemed forced into the sequence. "Guarda la Luna" by Sophia Loren is ethereal. "Unusual Way" by Nicole Kidman showcased her beautiful face more than her voice. Marion Cotillard had two numbers "My Husband Makes Movies" and "Take It All," both of which fully showcase her sensitive acting chops.

However the problem is, these fantastic song and dance number are united by a very thin storyline, that of a premiere Italian director Guido Contini (played by Daniel Day Lewis) who seemed to be stuck in a perpetual artist's block. In fact, he does not even have a script yet for his much-awaited new feature film with the grandiose title of "Italia"! The musical numbers express his relationship with the various women in his life. However, this main character (or even his songs) is not really very appealing nor sympathetic nor interesting. You really need some patience to get through "Nine." It is just like watching a series of music videos held together by a very tenuous connecting string, ready to unravel at any time. Director Rob Marshall does his best with the thin "plot" but this is certainly not "Chicago." I think "Nine" would be better appreciated on DVD. You would wish you could just fast-forward to the next song number and skip all the dour Contini parts.