Review: Nine
Star-studded cast fails to impress in Rob Marshall’s movie musical
Posted by: Matthew Halverson on Dec 25, 2009 at 08:00AM
3 Comments
Let’s get this out of the way: Daniel Day-Lewis can’t sing. When he unleashes his brand of back-of-the-throat vibrato in Nine, he sounds a bit like he’s gargling a milkshake. (Gargling it up!) Thankfully, he only has two numbers in Rob Marshall’s big-screen adaptation of the Tony-winning musical—though it’s hard to shake the feeling that Marshall expects you to give his leading man a pass because, well, it’s Daniel Day-Lewis. In fact, it’s hard to shake the feeling that Marshall hopes you’ll give the entire cast a pass, based on the promise of their collective resume. Too bad so few of the starlets actually deliver.
Saggy singing aside, Day-Lewis is appropriately slick as Guido Contini, an Italian director based on Federico Fellini who’s as skilled at romancing his leading ladies as he is at coaxing powerful performances out of them. Ten days before the cameras roll on his latest picture, he has no script, no budget, and a chorus line of past and present female influences dancing through his head. Day-Lewis sells Contini’s existential angst—and irrepressible id—but in light of real-world sleaze stories like Tiger Woods’s, asking us to root for the fictional director to overcome his pre-production dalliances is a hard sell.
What makes Nine such a letdown, though, is the clunky integration of musical numbers that should have buoyed the whole movie. Each feels like a forced attempt to give the cast of supporting actresses—Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, and the Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie, among others—a chance to vamp, and with one exception, they’re flashy, hollow set pieces. It’s not until Marion Cotillard, who plays Guido’s wife, Luisa, mourns the impending death of her marriage in “My Husband Makes Movies,” that Nine stops to show a little heart.
Matthew,
“real-world sleaze stories like Tiger Woods’s”…
Uh, it’s just my opinion, but, don’t we go to see movies to escape such things….Sure, Daniel will never be confused with the great tenors of the world, but in this role, his singing voice, imo, was just fine. He was not in concert….
I am in total agreement with you about the best performance in the movie being given by Marion as the director’s wife. Her performance alone is reason enough to see the film and may well be a reason for a supporting actress nod.
“the clunky integration of musical numbers that should have buoyed the whole movie. Each feels like a forced attempt to give the cast of supporting actresses—Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, and the ’Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie, among others—a chance to vamp”..hello, it’s a musical…the actors will be singing
I think you let the real world in once again when you attempt to label the actresses in their roles and critique their singing as if each needed to put on a command concert performance to propel the film.
Yes, it is a ‘musical’ and singing is an integral part of the film. In my opinion, it was not just ‘vamping’. Recall that each actress was in character and performing as a character and not in concert performing, for example, as a member of the ‘Black Eyed Peas’ (in Fergie’s case). The audience that saw the film when I did were not complaining about the singing or vamping after the film.
I found the set decoration and the editing to be very compelling and the singing to be just fine and while it may not win the Oscar (which seems to be the bar most critics set for all films) it did what a good film always does, and that is, it engaged the audience and transported them into the world of the film and told a story that was in this case very entertaining (all comparison’s to Chicago aside).
But that’s just my opinion…..everyone has one….
I’d never seen Kate Hudson dance and sing and was pleasantly surprised.
I enjoyed the movie, I recommend more men to see it….it’s true more than not
how many men end up alone and talk about the one that got away…..because he wasn’t ready to grow up and commit to one woman.
I’d give it an 8 out of 10
Is there a way to watch this movie in the theaters on mute!?