Why is the title of this film Nine? That thought was the only reason I remained in my seat during the entirety of this film. I couldn’t figure it out until the end – it’s the name of the film Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) finally decides to make after two years and 10 days of wonderment.
Helmed by Rob Marshall (Chicago), Nine primarily focuses on Contini’s life in the 10 days leading up to the first day of shooting his new film, Italia, for which he has written no script or has conceived no plot idea. In these 10 days, seven women in his past and present life try to help him find inspiration, screw him or do both. These women include his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard), his mistress Carla (Penelope Cruz), his leading lady Claudia (Nicole Kidman), Vogue reporter Stephanie (Kate Hudson), his seamstress Lilli (Dame Judy Dench), his dead mother Mamma (Sophia Loren) and an Italian whore Saraghina (Stacy Ferguson i.e. Fergie).
Day-Lewis is fine. He’s arguably the beat actor of his generation, but this role is so melodramatic and subdued that he comes off as boring. His agony, pain and search for inspiration is so not heartwrenching…at all.
The women in his life each have their own personality, all of whom vary in their entertainment value. Cruz and Hudson are by far the most entertaining with their costumes and song-and-dance numbers. Their characters are the most colorful.
Dench is kind of like his philosophical guide through life/ seamstress, since she’s been with him since his first film. If Dench is his conscience, Mamma is his subconscious. Although dead, she still whispers advice to him.
Cotillard is the wife who supports her husband no matter what may occur, as long as his mistress is never seen or mentioned. She has a couple of song-and-dance numbers, but her performance was just hackneyed.
Kidman and Fergie are both in the film for five minutes-ish each. Where Kidman it trying to come off as demure, she comes off as boring. The jury’s still out on whether or not Fergie can actually act, but she surely sang and danced well in the film.
Chicago, this movie is not. No one will win an Oscar, and no one will remember that anyone didn’t win an Oscar.
Fame is the wrong name for this remake of the 1980s classic. Yes, the music, vocals and choreography were all awesome, as to be expected, even the acting is above par, but everything else in this movie is not.
First, I had no idea what the names of the characters were until halfway through the movie. Second, although I understood that the director had to pay omage to the original, cramming an audition day and four years thereafter is very difficult to do in under two hours, and it is not pulled off well. Third, and perhaps hypocritically, the subplots were as developed as the major plot ( i.e. following a select group of highschoolers at PA through all four years), which is good for subplots, but horrid for the major plot. I suppose someone could say the multiple subplots, which I classify as the personal lives of the characters outside their pursuit of their dreams, are what make up the movie, but the movie would have done better to focus on the pursuit of the few, specific characters’ dreams than integrate the personal lives.
With a cast that includes Kelsey Grammer, Bebe Neuwirth, Megan Mullally and Debbie Allen, as the guides for these youngsters with dreams, a better script could have been written and a better movie produced. They all live up to the names they’ve made for themselves over the years. In fact, all the stars of the film are quite excellent. The young stars of the film seem well-seasoned, and that is one of the parts of the film that made it not so painful for me. Naturi Naughton (Denise Dupree) and Collins Pennie (Malik Washburn) were especially the standouts of the young parts of the cast as an Upper East Side, I-do-exactly-what-my-parents-want girl and an I-came-up-from-the-ghetto guy. They really seem to understand their characters. It’s deep.
If you want to have a good time at the movies and sing out loud and dance in the isles. Go see it. If you care about things like plot lines and being upset at the end because you’re thinking, “I just sat here for two hours and I don’t know why any of the characters did what they did. And what did they do?” Don’t go see it.
