Nine (2009)

Review:

Where to begin? I’ll start with a confession. I entered this film with multiple biases. First of all, I love “Fellini’s 8 ½” (1963) upon which the story of “Nine” is based. In fact, “8 ½” would be on my short list for favorite movies ever. Second, I participated in the musical “Nine” when I was in high school so I am very familiar with the music and how the stage play works.

The problem with “Nine” is that it tries too hard be “8 ½” with the songs of “Nine” jolted in. The remarkable thing about the tony award winning play “Nine” is that it so strategically incorporates the whimsy and grace of “8 ½” with its muisc while maintaining its own independent world, its own life. The film “Nine” relies too heavily on “8 ½” while simultaneously sacrificing the most thought provoking aspects of both Fellini’s film and the stage musical.

“Nine” is the story of Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), an Italian director who is supposed to make a new movie but finds himself bankrupt of ideas. Feeling pressured to do his job he flees Rome and heads to a luxury spa. Eventually all the people he ran away from come to the spa in search of him. This includes his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his costume designer Lilli (Judy Dench), and a fashion reporter (Kate Hudson) and various other producers and writers.
This influx of people creates chaos in Guido’s mind and he finds it all the harder to cope. He longs for the actress Claudia (Nicole Kidman) to arrive in Italy. Guido believes that she will be the catalyst for his inspiration.

“Nine” was directed by Rob Marshall who’s previous film “Chicago” was hailed as a return to the big budget musical. Marshall has developed a way of making musical numbers seem plausible to a modern audience that does not take kindly to their characters bursting out in a bawdy chorus line. Instead of having the songs occur in the actual space-time reality of the film’s narrative, Marshall uses his character’s imaginations as the playground for the musical. I call it the Cerebral Musical technique.

In “Nine” when a song is about to begin, the camera usually does a close up on Guido and then we are in his mind where it’s safe to have a song. But this doesn’t work for me. It worked for “Chicago” but not for “Nine.” These are musicals of different calibers. Part of the fun of the stage “Nine” and “8 ½” was never being sure when you were descending into fantasy or dealing with reality. In Marshall’s “Nine” it is made painfully obvious.

Also, some of the best songs from the musical were cut out, including “The Bells of St. Sebastian,” and “Simple” and they are replaced with lesser songs like “Cinema Italiano.”

The exclusion of these essential songs essentially removes the theme of Guido’s inner battle with sexuality and catholic guilt that drives both 8 ½ and the staged “Nine.” We are never clearly led to understand this story is about a man grappling with the child inside of him. It’s very frustrating really.

I think it says a lot that they cut out the song “Nine” from the movie “Nine.”

Rating:

On a scale of one to Casablanca, this film is a nine.

Rationalization:

This movie looks really good. Some of the cinematography is wondrous and some of the choreography is superb. But these things do not a good film make. To have a good movie you need good characters that, in some capacity, deliver ideas. “Nine” only has the skeleton of the ideas that are so thoroughly fleshed out in “8 ½.” Marshall and his writers have exchanged substance for gloss, and that just doesn’t fly in my books.