Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
Rob Marshall's musical follow up to his triumphant, visionary CHICAGO seven years ago is a bit of a mixed bag. Parts of it are beautiful and unforgettable, while other sections are frustrating and tedious. I'm recommending the film because, above all other thing, Marshall has creating one of the most stunning pieces of film you'll see all year--and there are actual moments when the message is as awe inspiring as the visuals. But there are other times where the music, the movement, and the message just didn't mesh--and occasionally they outright clash.
Based on the celebrated Broadway musical of the same name (which in turn was a take on Federico Fellini's 8 1/2), NINE is a journey through the life and loves of lauded Italian filmmaker Guido Contini (portrayed with the expected reverence and unexpected humor by Daniel Day-Lewis). He is days away from launching his next filmed production, after a couple of real box office and critical clunkers. The sets are being build, costumes are being sewn (by the omnipresent Lilli, played with fearsome gusto by Judi Dench), and the actors are flying in to be shooting. The problem is, Guido doesn't have a script or even an idea of what the film will be about. He's able to fool his producers and the press into thinking he's got another potential masterpiece in the making, but the truth is, he has nothing but a brain swirling with memories of all the girls he's loved before--some of which he is still currently loving, including his long-suffering wife Luisa (Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard, who gives the finest performance of the film).
As much fun as Day-Lewis is to watch do pretty much anything he damn well pleases, Guido is a tough guy to get behind or really care about. He has mistresses around the block and more waiting to bed him, a lovely wife who adores him and is destined to hurt on a daily basis, and a severe case of writers block seemingly causes by a flood of thoughts about more women. Rough life, Guido. And as he recalls each woman in his life fondly, we are given a new song in a different style so that roughly two-thirds of the movie takes place in a fantasy world of hot women, movies that may or may not have been made, and vision in his own mind of his sainted mother (Sophia Loren looking so gorgeous). Like the movie itself, the songs are hit and miss. Fergie's rendition of "Be Italian" is pure sex, and she's by far the best singer of the bunch. Nicole Kidman gets a forgettable number, while Kate Hudson gets to go-go shimmy like her mother used to do, but the number is forgettable and disposable except for the much-needed punch it gives the middle of the movie. The second-best performance in Nine belongs to Penelope Cruz, as Guido's long-standing mistress, who also has a respectable singing voice as is manic-depressive.
But here's the real question? Is there an audience ready to line up to see a film about an Italian filmmaker with songs that reference the neo-realist film movement and have clever references tossed in to Fellini's better-known works? It's not really my job to judge whether there's an audience for a particular film, I realize that. And certainly I am among the target audience members who might find this tribute to Italian cinema and beauty quite fascinating. So if I found NINE a bit shallow and tedious at times, I can only imagine what a more casual observer might think of this free-spirited and barely contained chaos. I found the entire exercise rather funny, and I'm pretty sure the humor is intentional. Certainly Day-Lewis is in on the frivolous nature of the exercise, and that almost makes it all the more enjoyable.
I should note at this point that Nine is the final screenplay attributed to the late Anthony Minghella (who co-wrote with Michael Tolkin), and just thinking that we won't ever benefit from his layered and singular outlook on relationships, love, loss, and rebirth (spiritual or otherwise) makes me sad. Director Marshall has done an admirable job with the with the visuals, but I just wasn't as sucked into the minimal settings the way I was with CHICAGO or even his telling of MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. Somethings missing from NINE. Maybe it's a sympathetic leading character. Maybe a collection of songs all essentially about the same thing--all in praise of Guido--is a bit too much. But I found it extremely difficult to find an entry point into this story. Cruz and especially Cotillard give us wonderful characters that draw us part of the way into this world, but when they leave the screen, I lost a degree of interest. NINE held me just enough that I'm still saying it's worth checking out, but only after you've seen about a half-dozen far better films out now. Stay for the sexy ladies, but don't expect to be humming any of these tunes as you leave the theater.
-- Capone
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