You have got to go see Nine. It is definitely on my list of favorites for the year.
Nine (Daniel Day-Lewis as Guido Contini, Marion Cotillard as Luisa Contini, Penelope Cruz as Carla, Nicole Kidman as Claudia, Judi Dench as Lilli, Kate Hudson as Stephanie, Sophia Loren as Mamma Contini, Fergie as Saraghina) – I score Nine a 10. Director Rob Marshall (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha) directs this adaptation of the twice Broadway hit, Nine, which itself is an adaptation of the Frederico Fellini film, 8½. And what a job he did of presenting a complicated plot filled with flashbacks, multiple characters, and incredible sets. This surpasses his Oscar winner, Chicago, and is a musical film triumph.
The story revolves around a once successful and now failing Italian film director named Guido Contini (two time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis), who is seeking a comeback hit. His ninth film (hence the title) has been funded and is set to begin principal shooting in 10 days. But Contini has no script; he hasn’t written it yet. He has no inspiration, and he goes off to a spa to find it. We then meet all the women in his life: his wife (Oscar winner Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Oscar winner Penelope Cruz), his muse and leading lady (Oscar winner Nicole Kidman), his confidante and long-time costume designer (Oscar winner Judi Dench), his mother (Oscar winner Sophia Loren), a fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), and the prostitute of his youth (Fergie).
Contini is blocked and having a mid-life crisis of sorts. He has visions of all of these women in elaborate musical numbers, all of which were sung and danced by the stars themselves. Every number is a showstopper, none more than Stephanie’s (Hudson). Who knew she could both sing and dance, just like her mother, Goldie Hawn? Hawn started as a dancer and sang in her early career and again in Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You. To see Judi Dench sing and dance was a revelation. Every actor is amazing. Cotillard, who played Edith Piaf, once again proves she is one of the world’s great actresses (this is her second American film this year along with Public Enemies). Of course, Kidman had been an incredible surprise in Moulin Rouge. Fergie, an actress since she was a child and now a member of the Black Eyed Peas, was perfectly cast as sexy and slutty. And it seems that Penelope Cruz can do it all, playing the sexy, yet vulnerable, lover. And seeing 75-year-old Sophia Loren as Contini’s deceased mother looking luminescent transports the viewer back in time.
As with most musicals, the story is merely a means to move from one song to the next. But Day-Lewis is incredible … again … inhabiting the part and dominating the screen without being over the top. He is highly believable as the struggling director who needs to get back on top but has no vehicle to do it. Every movie lover, particularly those who enjoy musicals, should see this film and its six Oscar winners. It should earn some itself.