Director: Rob Marshall (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha)
Screenplay: Michael Tolkin & Anthony Minghella
Based on: “Nine,” a Broadway musical by Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston, based on 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini
Producers: Rob Marshall, Marc Platt, John DeLuca, Harvey Weinstein
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren, Fergie
Year: 2009
Country: United States
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 110min.
(4/5)
When you make a movie inspired by Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2, you’ve already got a lot more to live up to than most filmmakers are willing to take on. When you’re Rob Marshall and only have two other feature films on your directing resume, it takes some guts to embark on a project like Nine, even if you did manage to win a Best Picture Oscar for your directorial debut Chicago (an award that many film critics strongly disagree with, incidentally). On the other hand, Marshall comes from a musical/Broadway/choreography background, which gives him a leg up on Nine, which has a Broadway musical sitting between it and 8 1/2. So this could really have gone either way. But I have to say, with a cast like this one (which includes three of my girlcrushes as well as the always solid Judi Dench and often incredible Daniel Day-Lewis), I was really hoping it would work. And generally, it does, though admittedly with much less subtlety than Fellini’s original.
Film director Guido Contini (Day-Lewis) is known for a string of great successes early in his career, but is just coming off a couple of major flops as he’s supposed to be beginning another film, the one he and his supporters hope will be his comeback. But he’s unable to come with a solid story, much less a script, and shooting starts in ten days. He’s got his producer, his costume designer (Dench), and his leading lady (Nicole Kidman) all after him to get moving, but all he can manage to do is escape to a spa and fantasy versions of all the women in his life – from his mother (Sophia Loren) to the prostitute he remembers paying to dance at age 9 (Fergie) to his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard), current mistress Carla (Penélope Cruz), and a fashion reporter (Kate Hudson). As Luisa points out to Guido, it’s “no wonder you’ve got no script, you’re too busy inventing your own life.” These fantasies become the musical numbers in Nine, each of them intercut with what’s going on in real life.
The beginning of the film is a little rough, the musical numbers not fitting in with the story or pacing as well as they could – and in fact, the first two or three musical numbers are not particularly good, erring a little bit toward being both shrill and forgettable. But a turning point in the film occurs as Guido’s musings range back to his childhood, when he and some school friends went to a shack on the beach to pay Seraghina to dance for them. Yes, strangely enough, though Fergie’s inclusion in this film was the one casting choice that made me roll my eyes when I heard it, she is the one that pulls the film from awkward musical wanna-be into electrifying mode with “Be Italian.” It’s easily the strongest song and production number in the film (even receiving an ovation in the screening I saw), and from this point forward, the film’s energy really came into its own and pulled me onto its side. It didn’t hurt that here is also where the interesting juxtaposition of sexuality and lapsed Catholicism comes to the fore – a theme I found interesting in light of the story about a man who surrounds himself with beautiful women but is unable to truly love any of them.
There are some misteps afterwards, mostly a bit of obviousness in the script and also Kate Hudson’s number “Cinema Italiano,” which is flashy but basically comes off overly 2000s shallow glam pop, and manages to pretty much betray in five minutes how little the songwriters actually know about Fellini. But in the second half, the movement of the story zeros in firmly on Guido’s relationship with his wife, and if I wasn’t already convinced by now, I’m now fully in support of everything Marion Cotillard does, because almost even more than Day-Lewis, she holds the film together and makes you care what happens to the people in it. I love most of the actresses in this film, but Cotillard can say more with one flick of her eyes or turn of her head than any of the rest of them. This trajectory toward Luisa Contini is found in 8 1/2 as well, but it’s pared down here and much more focused in a way that may piss off Fellini fans, but honestly, the greater directness works for the more mainstream entertainment that Nine is.
The film looks very pretty despite Marshall’s overuse of certain cinematic techniques (notably backlighting, which is breathtaking the first couple of times, but not so much by the time he uses it in almost every scene) and once those first couple of rough numbers get out of the way, he does a good job of balancing choreography with editing. Day-Lewis is a good choice to play the self-centered, ego-centric, maturity-challenged Guido, and I liked him as much or more in this film as I have in anything else I’ve seen – the part allows him to be simultaneously introspective and over the top, and the film is over the top enough to meet him. And it was fun to hear Kidman sing again, eight years after Moulin Rouge!; she lights up the screen in her few minutes as Guido’s recurring actress and muse, something she seems better able to do when she doesn’t have to carry a whole film. Oddly, Cruz was the weak link among the actresses for me, even though I generally love her. She wasn’t helped by the relatively thankless role of the whiny mistress, or by being given the most blatantly provocative musical number in the film, one which overplayed her physical charms to an unnecessary and frankly distracting degree.
Nine mirrors 8 1/2 with varying degrees of fidelity, but if you’re expecting an existential romp through a Fellini-esque psyche as Guido comes to terms philosophically with his life, his influences, his relationships, and his art, you’re probably going to be a little disappointed. If, on the other hand, you’re willing to forgive a bit of streamlining, a bit more traditional plotting, and a bit less enigmatic characterization, you may find Nine more enjoyable than you expect.
This discussion currently has 9 responses.
December 22, 2009
I’ll be watching this one at some point, but it is a bit wince worthy that it looks almost like The Simpson parody musical version of Fellini’s film. “8 1/2″ is most definitely a masterpiece and not without its own level of bombast, charm and scale, whereas this simply looks garish.
As you said though, I think the film will likely be much easier to appreciate scene by scene rather than as a completely package. I imagine the film is likely to say very little, but say it big and loudly.
December 22, 2009
Anouk Aimee did a superb job playing Luisa in 8 1/2, but I can totally see Marion Cotillard matching her quality.
December 22, 2009
Kurt, you’re not wrong about Nine being big and loud, and I could fault it for that (in fact, that’s a lot of what I didn’t like about the first few numbers – they were unnecessarily big and loud when we didn’t yet know what they were being big and loud ABOUT), but it pulled me in and made me not care. I’ll admit some biases down here – 8 1/2 is not my favorite Fellini film by a longshot, and though I saw it years ago, I didn’t remember much of it until I rewatched it AFTER seeing Nine. While watching Nine I actually took several notes to the effect that “I bet this was more subtle in the original”, and I was surprised to find that in many cases, it actually wasn’t. I’ll also admit that despite the Chicago backlash, I loved that film, and I refuse to apologize for it. I dunno. The music in Nine isn’t as memorable as Chicago’s (I wouldn’t go around listening to the soundtrack), but I still enjoyed it.
And Marc, you’re right, Anouk Aimee was great in 8 1/2, and I expect you may not like the more direct, less ambiguous way Luisa and Guido’s relationship is portrayed in Nine, but I actually liked it. I’m ready to take heat for this, but Nine is more satisfying than 8 1/2 narratively – I know that “satisfying” isn’t really what 8 1/2 is going for, and that what it achieves is superior cinematically, but I’d never pop 8 1/2 in for fun some afternoon. I would Nine. That’s the difference.
January 1, 2010
A friend and I saw this yesterday and I don’t think there is enough for a good story in “Nine”. I think the fault is in the original source material and not the performances or direction. I know that the source material has won Tony Awards but it doesn’t grab me like “Chicago” did.
Almost all the women perform their musical numbers as if they were on a Victoria Secrets runway. This is excellent from an eye-candy perspective but I got a little tired of it by the end. I don’t know how it was handled for the Broadway production.
Fergie’s number is definitely the standout. The set for “Be Italian” was great and I loved the use of sand during that number.
I actually liked the movie better when the musical numbers weren’t being performed. The chemistry between Guido and Luisa and Guido and Lilli (Judi Dench’s character) were great. And the shots of Italy, the spa, the cobble stone streets – I love all that.
I admit that I haven’t seen Fellini’s 8 1/2 so I don’t know if I am missing something or not in relation to “Nine”
January 2, 2010
Jane, thanks for the comment! The problem is that the story isn’t really plot-driven, it’s completely centered on Guido’s character and his existential internal struggle to overcome his artistic dry spell. It perhaps works better for an admitted art film like 8 1/2 than for a musical like Nine, which you’d expect to have more of a traditional plot (like Chicago did). There’s not much that HAPPENS in the story – it’s an exploration of Guido’s relationships with the women in his life and how that affects his artistic capabilities.
The Victoria Secret runway-type thing bothered me the most in Penelope Cruz’s number. And I guess in Kate Hudson’s, but as soon as that song equated Fellini with neo-realism I tuned out completely. I thought Marion Cotillard’s were quite well-done, and obviously Fergie’s was a knockout. I’m glad you mentioned the non-musical scenes, because there was a lot to enjoy there, too. I HATED Judi Dench’s number, though. Most pointless thing in the film. I’m plenty happy to have my Dame Judi not singing and dancing.
January 31, 2010
3/5
Pretty boring story and the music is really lackluster. But man that set design, costuming and choreography is absolutely stunning! Worth the watch just for that. You are right, Fergie’s number is an absolute stand out. The color and lighting and the choreography with the sand and the tambourines is simply devine on every level.
Next to Broken Embraces and The White Ribbon, this is the best looking film of the year. Every shot is gorgeous.
Cotillard is brilliant. I actually disagree with you about Cruz. I thought she was pretty decent here, but you’re right that Cotillard is the stand-out steals every scene – even from DDL.
February 1, 2010
So you’re on board with my plan to have every movie (except the stupid ones) star Marion Cotillard. Awesome! And yes, it is very pretty – hence why I clearly had difficulty narrowing down the screencap choices and ended up using way more than usual in the post.
I think Cruz’s initial number turned me off a lot (obviously the opposite of its intention, heh), and made it difficult for me to look at the character as anything but oversexualized and a little whiny. Maybe I’ll think differently on rewatch.
February 1, 2010
I think the problem with Cruz’ character (or any of them for that matter) is simply that there isn’t enough screen time for any of them to develop into something interesting. Dench was pretty awesome, but how great would it have been to spend another 20 minutes with her? Same thing with Cruz and Kidman I think. There were just too many characters and not enough time to dive into them all. Or so it seems with me anyway.
And yet Cotillard with her equally limited screen time is simply stunning here. Yes. her and Peter Sarsgaard should just be in everything. The world would be a better place
February 1, 2010
They could’ve cut out Kate Hudson’s character and I would’ve been fine. Split her screen time equally between Cruz and Kidman. I liked Kidman in her limited time, though (but I’m an unashamed Kidman fan; I’ll see her in anything, even when she does crap, which is way too often). Dench was great, but they could’ve cut her number too, and given her more talk time.
Cotillard does get two songs, though, instead of just one – so she is a little more “featured” than the rest. But she had me hanging on her every glance well before that.