The Weinstein Company | USA/Italy | 118 min
A great musical always leaves one leaving the theater in joy constantly humming or even singing. More importantly, a great musical’s songs actually add to the story and the characters. There’s very few musical films that have accomplished that. Does Nine? No. This is a forgettable and yet mildly passable piece of Oscar bait.
Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a highly renowned Italian director who’s caught in a crossfire of personal and professional problems. He’s starting production on his latest film that may redeem him from a string of flops. The only problem: there isn’t a script. He’s working on nothing and is at a creative block. Guido has to deal with annoying producers, artistic pressure and a heap of stress. With all of this on his plate he also has to deal with the array of women in his life, from estranged wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard), his delectable girl on the side Carla (Penelope Cruz), his reliant costume designer Lilli (Judi Dench), his star actress Claudia (Nicole Kidman), his dead mother (Sophia Loren) and the always lovable childhood prostitute (Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson).
Disappointingly, the story is a mess from its loosely-stringed narrative that focuses on a hollow relationship. The main focus is on Guido and Luisa’s relationship which carries no emotional weight. That’s a problem of epic proportions, considering thats intended to be the driving emotional force of the story. The only reason why that doesn’t completely torpedo the film is because of Lewis and Cotillard make it work. It’s simply an underwritten relationship that can never truly pull at the heartstrings.
As for the musical numbers, a few are enjoyable. They come through Guido’s imagination and represent his emotions, an excellent idea considering how annoying it is seeing characters so often singing out their feelings to others. A few of the songs are quite enjoyable, but there’s also unfortunately another batch of songs that add literally nothing. Especially Kate Hudson’s number. Those useless songs also add to the film’s pacing issues.
The generally fantastic Daniel Day Lewis delivers ultimately just a good performance; mostly due to the weak script. Unlike There Will be Blood or The Boxer, he doesn’t sweep one away with his usual shtick of greatness. He’s stuck in an underdeveloped and limited role. Lewis definitely brings gravitas to due to his charisma, sharpness and his dark onscreen presence, but he’s still wasted. Cottilard fares better who not only defines a natural beauty, but one of the most refined actresses currently working. Cottiliard works the best with the bland material turning in an excellent performance. She’s truly the only character one can feel any emotion for.
As for the supporting cast, everyone is mostly adequate. The highlight unsurprisingly is Cruz. Cruz steals the film with the most satisfying and entertaining musical sequence. You’ll know it when you see it, but its definitely the most rousing number to be found. There’s also the matter of Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren who are both wasted. They’re perfectly fine, but they’re stuck playing unneeded characters that easily could have been cut.
Years ago Rob Marshall’s Chicago was a critical and audience darling that was highly enjoyable. His followup Memoirs of a Geisha was the complete opposite resulting into a failure of mediocrity. Does Nine mark Marshall’s return? Yes but mostly no. One of the reasons why the film works better than it should is because of Marshall’s feverish and manic style. This was made to fit into the realm of sixties Italian cinema and Marshall captures the true beauty of that era. This is a wonderfully shot film with plenty of eye popping colors that truly burst from the screen. Sadly, he’s also to blame for a few of the dull and meaningless songs. Marshall also shoots a few of those numbers in a jarring manor with far too many cuts and close ups. It truly holds back some of the numbers causing a sense of incomprehensibility.
This is purely Oscar bait and will most likely be garnished with more than a few awards, but if that somehow happens all the credit must be given to a brilliant Oscar marketing campaign. Nine is simply a decent style over substance musical. With the talent involved, it’s shockingly underwhelming.