Luke
stu-kicks
CibbuanoNine
February 18th 2010 10:53
I was initially put off watching Nine because of the subject matter (being based on Fellini's [semi?]autobiographical 8 1/2, which I haven't seen). I was worried that it would leave me unable to properly appreciate the film... I mean, as far as things go, a Fellini film is a pretty obscure source for a big scale, all-star movie musical. For anyone else out there with similar reservations, I'll let you know that this movie is pretty self-contained and prior knowledge isn't really needed. But in place of those reservations I'm going to give you a whole bunch of other reasons not to see this film, highest amongst them being that it's a boring piece of crap.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays Guido Contini, a celebrated Italian director in the midst of heavy writer's block. He's a procrastinating smooth-talker and a playboy artist with a sense of humour. He's also a realist, highly frustrated, very self-assured and a lying, cheating philanderer. Day-Lewis gives another complex, recognisably iconic performance to add to his gallery of rogues, complete with mellifluous Italian accent. His internal battles form the crux of the movie, and his presence alone is the film's only real redeeming feature.
Firstly, the musical sequences all take place in Contini's imagination, and outside the film's narrative. It leaves little room for innovation of interaction and only really serves to highlight the genre's artifice next to other modern films. Each song seems like a film clip from a movie soundtrack, with snippets of the film's highlights sprinkled throughout like a promotional video, and it makes the whole thing feel very superficial. It doesn't really propel the film along. As any film student should know, the songs in a musical move the plot forward, but here the film just grinds to a halt during all the songs. It's like the director was all too aware of how unpopular musicals have become in recent years, and so he came up with this idea of making all the songs into film clips that take place outside of the plot so as not to challenge what modern audiences are willing to accept in a movie. But if a modern audience can't accept a musical where the songs don't take place within the narrative then why even bother making a musical in the first place? If I was a serious fan of musicals (and I'm not) I would feel very cheated by this movie. As it stands, I was just vaguely annoyed and very bored.
There are also some interesting ideas floating around that don't get a decent look-in... there's a slight sense that the movie is challenging the accepted idea of the director as auteur, with Contini's crew bending over backwards to make him look good simply because his name guarantees production and press interest, but this isn't really taken anywhere interesting. Instead the film just meanders along with Contini not really doing anything other than shagging and flirting with a variety of attractive women who get to sing a song each in his imagination. The rest of the cast includes an array of highly accomplished female talent... Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Fergie and Sophia Loren all appear. I'm not sure Cruz's performance is worth the Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination she got, but it's hardly surprising considering she won last year and that the Academy loves backing up their winners with further nominations.
Anyway, I wouldn't really recommend this movie. It's not very good and has very little in the way of excitement, it's only really worth watching for Daniel Day-Lewis but even with that in mind you'll still be bored. Oh, and Fergie's song looks like the video for Madonna's Cherish. In fact, most of the songs look like film clips for Madonna songs in the early 90s.
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