"NINE" (2009) (Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cottillard) (PG-13)
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QUICK TAKE:
Musical: Facing creative block for writing his next film, a director must also deal with the various women in his life, including his wife and lover.
PLOT:
Guido Contini (DANIEL DAY-LEWIS) is a once successful film director who's had hits in the past, but has delivered several flops of late. He's supposed to start shooting his latest movie, but is facing a creative block in terms of writing the screenplay, a point not lost on his producer, Dante (RICKY TOGNAZZI), or on-the-set confidante and costume designer, Lilli (JUDI DENCH).
Facing that and something of a midlife crisis, he contemplates the other women in his life, including his wife, former actress Luisa (MARION COTTILLARD), and sultry but obsessive lover, Carla (PENELOPE CRUZ). His attitude and treatment of women, of course, not only stems from his view of his late mother, Momma (SOPHIA LOREN), but also a prostitute from his childhood, Saraghina (STACY "FERGIE" FERGUSON), that he and other boys paid for a sultry dance long ago.
As a young journalist, Stephanie (KATE HUDSON), tries to seduce him, and his muse-type regular actress, Claudia (NICOLE KIDMAN), says she can't work without a script, Guido tries not only to get that worked out, but also his relationships with both Luisa and Carla.
OUR TAKE: 3.5 out of 10
I always find it a combination of being a bit amusing but even more disheartening, if not downright ironic, when people, stories or films end up pointing out their own flaws, seemingly without realizing they're doing just that. Politicians are usually the most susceptible to this (condemning some policy or behavior when they really think or act that way in private), but movies occasionally fall prey to the same.
An example is the musical "Nine," the latest flashy, big budget, multi-starred cinematic adaptation of a Broadway musical that itself was adapted from a famous movie (following in the footsteps of "The Producers" that took a similar roundabout track). In it, Daniel Day-Lewis plays a famous movie director who's facing a massive creative block with his latest feature that's ready to start filming any day.
The only problem is he doesn't have a screenplay, a small matter about which hordes of people keeping reminding and pestering him. As his lead actress (Nicole Kidman, who proved she could sing in "Moulin Rouge!" but is only allotted one song here, which also holds true for all but one other actress) points out, "There's no movie without a script." If only director Rob Marshall, who previously helmed the Oscar winning "Chicago" back in 2002, realized his film suffered from the same problem.
To be fair (and accurate), there is a script -- penned by Michael Tolkin and the late Anthony Minghella -- but practically no story to speak of. It's based on Arthur Kopit's book of the Tony Award winning 1982 Broadway musical of the same name that itself was based on Federico Fellini's 1963 film, "8 1/2," and is about that loosely fictional director, not only suffering from creative impotency but also trying to juggle the various women in his life, past and present. Accordingly, you'd think there would be plenty of plot to go around.
Alas, we get a bare bones scenario peppered by a bunch of imagined musical numbers (that at least get around the usually cumbersome issue of people suddenly dropping everything and breaking into unrealistic song and dance) that, with a few exceptions, feature mediocre to instantly forgettable songs and are over-edited to within an inch of their lives as if Marshall imagined himself as a music video director.
Those who enjoy watching imaginatively staged and choreographed dance numbers (when more introspective solos aren't taking place on a smaller, but intimate scale) -- you know, the kind that make Broadway and films based on such productions favorites among so many viewers -- are only allowed a few scant moments to see such arrangements before a quick cut interrupts that, only to be followed by yet another and another.
Since most of those machine gun edited numbers are just fantasy asides only loosely connected at best to the main "plot," the fact that at least one reel was out of place at our press screening didn't have any impact on one's viewing -- and/or view -- of the overall effort. In fact, some fellow critics didn't even realize the technical projection snafu, commenting that they just thought that's the way the film was supposed to be.
Then again, the rest of us probably noticed because we were otherwise bored into distraction despite the pretty pictures (I'll admit it looks quite handsome and striking), the terrific cast (that also includes Judi Dench, Marion Cottillard and Sophia Loren), and one heckuva sultry number by Penelope Cruz (that's apparently tantalized enough middle-aged male reviewers into thinking the film is more entertaining than it really is).
Then there's the issue that the protagonist isn't remotely likable. As a result, we don't care that he can't get his next film off the ground or that he's having female troubles of his own making. Day-Lewis, who's always so good in whatever he sinks his thespian teeth into, certainly makes the character believable.
Few, however, will want to watch him going through his self-induced throes, and the lack of a story in a film about the lack of a story turns into a double whammy from which the film never recovers. Throw out the one or two decent musical numbers, and the result is a lame offering that comes up considerably short of its titular number in terms of its artistic score. "Nine" rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
Reviewed December 3, 2009 / Posted December 25, 2009
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