kerryprice

In his review, Brian Orndorf ends with the sentence, "All the heaving bosoms, coy smiles, and Italian fashion fetishism can't cover for the film's frightening lack of a soul." Studies of Fellini's works from the 60's indicate that in many of them this was his exact theme - the lack of soul - which is the cause of the deviant behavior we see in films such as "La Dolche Vita". I would respectfully suggest that, in the future, if reviews are being done on works with stage backgrounds (yes, I know that "Nine" has it's roots in "81/2" but "Nine" is the film version of the stage production)...some serious research be done prior to the viewing and publication of the review. Granted "Nine" does have it's problems.....and to an untrained and unknowledgeable eye could be viewed as Mr. Orndorf has viewed the film. This is a film about film and the creative process. In order to fully evaluate it, one must have some background in the history of the project......unlike works such as, "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" - which exists on a different plane of filmmaking. Please take some time to school yourself with more than the most cursory of information from press kits and other studio "information". Thank you.

Giles

it doesnt open here in DC til next Friday - from what I've been reading online the reviews haven't been all that positive.

William Fuld

What a load. Welcome to the forum!

Supermallet

If a movie can't be enjoyable on its own merits (i.e. it requires you to read the book it came from, or see the musical it's based on, etc.), then it doesn't work as a movie.

Throwing Copper

I never thought I'd ever not want to see a film that Day-Lewis is starring in, but this looks like a bomb.

Bump for more reviews.

Superboy

Saw it.

Hated it.

It's only because this movie is boring and senseless. It's the Star Wars: Episode I of musical films.

hardercore

pssshhhht.... go see the original film, then the remainder of Fellini's oeuvre, then the original musical and get back to me.

Patman

I don't really know what Rob Marshall and company were thinking when they went through with this film because it's rather unsatisfying fare, even with the homage to Fellini's "8 1/2" as inspiration for a look at Italian cinema in the late 1950s. Given a cast with 6 actors boasting Academy Awards on their resume, the script doesn't ask enough from them in this exploration of famous Italian film director Guido Contini's (Daniel Day-Lewis) downward spiral of hitting director's block on his comeback film project after suffering through some recent flops in his own creative journey.

Guido lived a complicated life, littered with a wife, mistresses, and muses, all the while holding on to the maturity level of an 8-year old since his creative output afforded him enough leeway to misbehave and live concurrent, haphazard, romantic lives irrespective of the cost to personal dignity and self-esteem of the women left in his romantic wake.

The film features quite a few "numbers" by the characters to better fill out what they are feeling at the moment, saying in song what they could not in person, internalizing pain and regret, or expressing other emotional mile-markers in relationships with Guido. Heck, there might have been exactly 9 numbers for all I know (it's close to that number).

Of all the numbers, I enjoyed Marion Cotillard's 2 numbers the most. She played Luisa, the wife of Guido, who finally comes to grips with who and what Guido is, and personally, it's an all-too-familiar touchstone within such a relationship borne from director taking an acting ingenue as his wife, while also unconsciously harvesting the personal perks from being an in-demand film director to the other ingenues-in-wait.

Penelope Cruz plays Carla, the current mistress who complicates Guido's life, and provides a tantalizing number to explain Guido's fascination with Carla. Even Judi Dench gets in the song-n-dance act, playing a long-time costumer/confidente of Guido's. Kate Hudson gets a fun little number to express the exciting aspects of Italian cinema through the eyes of an American reporter for Vogue, Fergie shows up as the siren to young Guido's burgeoning appreciation of womanhood, and Nicole Kidman provides a muse-like inspiration in spite of needing more real world TLC and respect. Sophia Loren plays Guido's mother, and Guido is not averse to seeking emotional shelter within his mother's embrace throughout his own recollections of his youth.

The numbers are well-executed for the most part, but it's not one of those films where the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. As the film wore on, I felt less and less sympathy or interest in Guido, and the conclusion didn't really mean much to me, probably because I checked out of the film 2/3 into it.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

Superboy

Okay.

I meant that it's the Episode I of musicals because it had everything going for it, and it blew it.

It was also too much in love with its own visuals. There was just way too much stupid crap going on at once.

Dr. DVD

You were associated with this movie in some way, weren't you? There is a fine line with musicals between entertaining and pretentious crap, and this one seems to have fallen on the crap side. If someone wants to see a movie about creativity block in the movies, watch Adapatation.

EDIT: Okay, I haven't seen it, but wanted to. Is it really that bad?

Rypro 525

Eh, i enjoyed it. Granted i have not seen Felini's flim, but it does come on TCM alot, so i'll catch it soon. Maybe i've got a thing for musicals (and at least 4 hot girls in lingerie). I also enjoyed most of the songs as well (as well as the cinemetography during the musical numbers). I wouldn't have guessed that "the Italiano" song that is in the trailers, was done by Fergie, but i would say the Penelope Cruz number was the highlight of the movie.

So, i prob wouldn't put it in my top movies of the year or anything, but its not nearly as bad as most are saying

MBoyd

We saw this today. I felt it was okay. Maybe liked it about the same as Rypro 525. Kind of middle of the road. Couple of the songs I liked. The eye candy was of course nice. Fun to see Sophia Loren on screen again. As a fan of 8 1/2, I was curious if the audience even knew the connection. I'd probably never watch Nine again though. I've seen 8 1/2 many times and I am looking forward to the Blu-ray.

movielib

To me it was a cross between All That Jazz and Chicago if they had both sucked. Since they were both great films (IMO, particularly ATJ) it was the anti-cross. Six Academy Award winners in search of a musical with decent music and a compelling story.

Dr. DVD

A friend of mine went and saw this and said that in the midst of all the musical numbers and pretty women, they forgot to tell a story.

Rypro 525

One complaint too, if i had one, didn't it feel that Kate Hudson's character/musical number was thrown in there last minute, almost is if they realized they didn't have a long enough movie. I wouldn't be shocked if that was the one original number that wasn't in the original play

Dr. DVD

Her song is new for the movie, so you are correct.

Ginwen

It's funny because the new song was one of two (Marian Cotillard's second song was the other) I really enjoyed. I think maybe it's because the style of the musical numbers in the movie as a whole fit the new song more than a lot of the songs from the play. Overall I think for this movie doing the songs like they were on a stage made most of them seem pretty emotionally detached, but the new song was about superficial stuff anyway so it being detached was fine.

Anyway I was pretty bored, I just about fell asleep around the part when Judi Dench started singing, which means I wasn't paying attention during the first Marian Cotillard song.

mdc3000

I thought most of the numbers felt like Chicago rejects - done in an almost identical style to that film - which didn't work for me in the context of this movie... they just feel totally out of place. They needed to be more CINEMATIC and less theatrical. Marion was gorgeous and Daniel Day keeps the movie from being a total flop, but I was constantly checking my watch and just praying the movie would end... I saw Sherlock and this back to back - how I managed to stay awake through two of the years most boring disappointments, I'll never know. Oh yeah, and I think it's safe to say that Chicago was a fluke. Rob Marshall is 1 for 3 IMO.

foofighters7

Love DDL, Liked Chicago, Love Fellini's films....BUT this tragically felt very Empty.

Visually- so so.
Musically- not all that inspired.
Acting- I honestly could hardly tell. It felt so disjointed that I couldn't even get a firm hold on DDL's character.
Story- hardly told, or edited way too much.

I wanted to love this, and looked forward to it since I heard about it, BUT It just didn't hit a home run with me.
Still, to me, one of the 15 better films I have seen so far, but COULD have been SO MUCH MORE.

GenPion

I'll be the lone voice to say that I thought this was great. I loved it!

Rypro 525

and that scene was actually quite scary as there were quite a few shots of Judi Dench cleavage :shudder:

Dr Mabuse

I've seen articles today around the net that this is bombing so badly they are going to pull it from hundreds of cities this week.

Dr. DVD

I think I'll wait until DVD to check this out at this point.

FWIW, this looks like the kind of result that would have happened had the "Tropic Thunder" movie (the one within the movie of the same name) gone full steam ahead on the path it was at the beginning. Oscar winning heavy-weight, major stars abound, and a pop star.

William Fuld

At some point Hollywood will wise up and stop casting Nicole "Box Office Poison" Kidman.

RichC2

She needs a movie with a plot, some day.