05/16/2010 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

Ugh!

I cannot believe that the great Michael Tolkin had anything to do with this mess. (Apparently, he co-wrote the screenplay.) The only good thing about it was Kate Hudson's number, "Cinema Italiano." Yes, the term "neorealism" is misused, but it rhymes, so who cares? But if you've seen the trailers, you've basically seen that number. Not much of a story, dull musical numbers, and I didn't think the acting was so good. Oh well, not sure what I expected. I couldn't get into Marshall's "Chicago," either. And I generally love movie musicals.

I haven't yet seen "8 1/2" (I know, shame, shame), so I'm not sure exactly what relationship this film was supposed to bear to it. Straightforward musical adaptation? Parody? Oh well, it has motivated me to seek out the original sooner rather t...

Rating of
0.5/4 

03/06/2010 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

An Enjoyable Mess

“Nine”, based on the Broadway play of the same name, can be described as an enjoyable mess. There are some amazing things about the film, yet there are some things that bring its buzz down. The unstoppable Daniel Day-Lewis plays Guido Contini, a film director who under pressure to write and direct a film in 10 days. It isn’t only the pressure of the film playing on his mental health, but also the relationships with the women in his life. His trials and tribulations with himself and his women are expressed through both the script and musical numbers. However, the two narrative forms collide in this film making the combination quite messy. The film could have been constructed in a way so that these two could have worked together to flow smoothly, but the way which director, Rob Marshall sep...

Rating of
2.5/4 

01/03/2010 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

Succeeds some, but fails some too

Rob Marshall, director of the successful film version of the musical Chicago, tries to strike gold twice with his film adaptation of the musical Nine. Some things work, some things don't.

FIrst off, if you don't like musicals it's doubtful that you'll like Nine. It's not a happy story, though the film version isn't as dark as the stage version. It tells the story of Guido, a director desperately trying to find inspiration for his latest film but being haunted by the women of his past and present. As he did with Chicago, Marshall films the musical numbers as fantasies of the protagonist, and this is one area that's a little confusing. How could someone who's struggling to find inspiration and creativity imagine such extravagant and wonderful musical numbers? Though that is a gripe of mi...

Rating of
3/4 

01/02/2010 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

Day-Lewis Needs To Do At Least Nine More Movies

Nine is not really a great musical. The music is not all that good (except for a couple of outstanding ones). But, that doesn't mean that the movie is pretty damn good.

The acting is absolutely near perfect with Daniel Day-Lewis leading the way. He is an amazing actor and portrays Contini...like he is Contini. I remember his acceptance speech for There Will Be Blood. He looked like Contini then. What a stud.

The rest of the cast is great as well (surprisingly, considering Kate Hudson is in int, who I despise). Nicole Kidman even puts on a fine performance.

So why is this movie so good if it only relies on acting? The story is pretty good but to be honest, it is fairly anti climactic. But, the cinematography is outstanding (as expected from Rob Marshall) and the way that Lewis ...

Rating of
3.5/4