My Review: Nine (5/10)

¨Directing a movie is a very overrated job, we all know it. You just have to say yes or no. What else do you do? Nothing. "Maestro, should this be red?" Yes. "Green?" No. "More extras?" Yes. "More lipstick?" No. Yes. No. Yes. No. That's directing. ¨

Those are the words that Lilli, a costume designer, tells Guido, the director, in the musical Nine. I don`t think Rob Marshall has the same opinion about that after directing this difficult film which was based on Federico Fellini`s famous movie 8 ½. It is very difficult for someone to try to make a movie based on one of the greatest films from director Fellini who is considered to be by many the best director of all time. Rob Marshall had big shoes to fill, and it had been seven years since he directed his latest musical, Chicago, which gave him an Oscar for best director and best picture. But that was way back in 2002 and this time the film falls short. It counted with an all star cast (5 of the actors won at least one Oscar), an Oscar winning director, a pair of Oscar winning screenplay writers, and Oscar winning designers, but this film went home empty handed in the 2010 Academy Awards because it just failed to live up to expectations. The story just felt flat and it didn`t accompany some of the great musical numbers very well. Compared to Chicago and Moulin Rouge, this film is miles away from those excellent musicals and can`t even be named alongside them. I never saw the Broadway Musical for this movie which won several Tony Awards, but something went wrong between that theatrical version and trying to bring it to the big screen. The Musical Nine was first produced in Broadway back in the 80`s and the main character Guido was played by the late Raul Julia. A more recent version was produced in 2003 starring Antonio Banderas, who was considered for the role in the movie, but it finally went to Daniel Day Lewis. The screenplay for this movie was written by Michael Tolkin (The Player and Deep Impact) and Anthony Minghella (The English Patient and Cold Mountain), but I have to admit they didn`t do a very good job with the transitions from dialogue to musical numbers, which at some points felt too forced.

Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood) plays Guido, a famous Italian director who is having trouble coming up with a story for his ninth film which will be entitled Italia. His latest films have all been flops after enjoying a very promising career during his early years. Guido tries to get away from all the pressure and the media in order to find inspiration. He is having an affair with an actress named Carla (Penelope Cruz from Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Vanilla Sky) while his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard from La Vie en Rose and Public Enemies) stays at home very suspicious of her husband. Guido can`t find his inspiration in his wife because their relationship seems to have cooled down, and he can`t find it with Carla either. Claudia (Nicole Kidman from The Hours) is his Muse and she always works in his film, but this time he can`t even find the inspiration in her. He searches all over for inspiration or ideas for his next film spending time with: his mother (Sophia Lauren), his costume designer Lilli (Judi Dench from Notes on a Scandal), a beautiful Vogue reporter named Stephanie (Kate Hudson from Almost Famous), and even remembering a prostitute from his childhood named Saraghina (played by Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas). Guido`s life begins to unravel in front of his eyes as he sees his directing career going down the drain along with his love life.

Nine is not a terrible movie, but it doesn`t live up to other musicals like Moulin Rouge or Chicago, because it seems to rely solely on sexuality. There are some very good musical numbers which I enjoyed a lot, but the story didn`t seem to work in Nine. The musical numbers were all pretty decent; Fergie`s Be Italian, Hudson´s Cinema Italiano, Cruz`s A Call from the Vatican, and Cotillard`s Take it All, stand out from the rest of the film. But these musical pieces are far too spread out in a movie that lacks a more involving story and better transition from one scene to the next. I think that any director would have died to be able to count with such a talented cast, but this time things didn`t go as planned. Nicole Kidman who was so good in Moulin Rouge, seems to have been the weakest actress in Nine and they could have used her a little better. This could have been so much better, but Rob Marshall didn`t seem to be able to fit all the pieces together this time around and hopefully he will do a better job with his next film which just happens to be the fourth part of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga. Nine is a film you will remember only for a couple of musical pieces, but the rest is very forgettable. I don`t really recommend this film unless you are a fan of one of these actors. Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson all stand out from the rest along with Daniel Day Lewis who is always solid in his performances.