Photo: Annie Leibovitz for Vogue.
STAR POWER | What do you get when you combine one Tony award-winning musical (based on one of history’s most influential film directors), starring seven A-list female stars and one of the greatest male leading actors of the past twenty years? Greatness — you would assume, right? Well, you would be wrong.
Monday night, HN was treated to a preview screening of the film adaptation of the 1982 Tony award-winning Best Musical, “Nine.” Both the film and the musical are treatments of Federico Fellini’s autobiographical and seminal film “8 ½,” which tells the tale of a fictional director, Guido Contini — a stand in for Fellini himself. In the film Contini finds himself creatively blocked, suffering a mid-life crisis, mooning over the great loves of his life. Directed by Rob Marshall, of “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Chicago” fame, the movie features a ridiculous wealth top Hollywood talent consisting of (insert drum roll please):
- Daniel Day-Lewis (2-time Academy Award winner, “There Will Be Blood”)
- Judy Dench (Academy Award winner, “Shakespeare in Love”)
- Kate Hudson (Golden Globe winner, “Almost Famous”)
- Penelope Cruz (Academy Award winner, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
- Marion Cotillaird (Academy Award winner, “La Vie En Rose”)
- Sophia Loren (Academy Award winner, “La ciociara”)
- Nicole Kidman (Academy Award winner, “The Hours”)
- Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson (Grammy nominated performer)
Before the criticism, lets discuss the good. All the women in the film killed it (Yes, even Fergie). The audience literally cheered when Cruz as Cotini’s mistress, finished her “Call from the Vatican” number. It should come as no surprise that Cruz can sing — she’s belted out songs in many of her films including Belle Époque (one of her first films), and “La niña de tus ojos” — for which she won a Goya Award. Kate Hudson plays her best character since “Almost Famous” — a swinging sixties “Vogue” writer. But most of all, and again no surprise, Ms. Cotillliard as the wife of Contini, proved once again that she has no intention of being a one-hit-Oscar-wonder never to be seen again. With such abundant star power, what went wrong?
The answer is Daniel Day-Lewis.
Day-Lewis with his rugged good looks and case full of awards was just OK. Perhaps the wretchedness of his performance in “Nine” is heightened because of genius of his previous works. It’s not clear. He wasn’t believable as a singing, middle aged, neurotic, Italian film director. Day-Lewis will never be that guy. He’s an oil tycoon, yes; a Mohican, yes; a tyrant, yes; a gangster, yes — a viable alias for Fellini? Not exactly. Perhaps, I’m being too hard on Day-Lewis. After all, his performance was fine. But when we’re talking about 2-time Oscar-winner, Daniel Day-Lewis, “fine” seems unworthy of him.
Aside from Day-Lewis’ performance, “Nine” was also far too short and there is a lot of down-time between musical numbers–which frankly were the main factors moving the film forward. The musical performances were just as good as (if not better than) Marshall’s previous sequences in “Chicago,” but extravagant dance offs can only carry a film so far.
In summary — though it pains me to write this — I wouldn’t rush to add this movie to your holiday “must see” list. Your $12 dollar movie ticket is better spent by adding “Nine” to your Netflix queue for some essential diva worship on a lazy Sunday. Just fast forward through all the talking scenes.
Related posts:
- Cruz & Dench | Behind the scenes video of ‘NINE’ (+ official trailer) A behind the scenes montage from the upcoming film adaptation of NINE, staring some of the most beautiful (and talented) women in the world...
- Golden Globes | Mariah Carey was robbed! Just kidding, but wouldn’t it have been amazing if she’d been nominated for her dressed-down performance in “Precious?” Speaking of Lee Daniels’ films, both...
- ‘NINE’ | Cinema Italiano The newest trailer-cum-music video for Rob Marshall’s “NINE” set to “Cinema Italiano,” a new song for the film performed by Golden Globe winner Kate...
- Fergie in Marchesa @ ‘Nine’ NYC Premiere Although Madonna opted for black, Fergie looked absolutely radiant in a white Marchesa resort collection gown on Tuesday night in New York City for...
- Penélope Cruz’s Vatican Call X ‘Nine’ What an amazing year for Penélope Cruz. She kicked off the year with an Academy Award, a Goya, and an Independent Spirit Award for...
Tags: Academy Award Winners, Daniel Day-Lewis, Federico Fellini, Guide Contini, Judy Dench, Kate Hudson, Marion Cotillaird, Nicole Kidman, NINE, Penelope Cruz, Rob Marshall, Sophia Loren, Stacy “Methface Fergie” Ferguson, Tony Award winning
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How can I take this review seriously when the author doesn’t know the difference between too and to?
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How can you take a commenter seriously when she’s getting all nasty bitch over one missing o? Some forgot their Midol.
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Feel free to come be our copy editor.
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also the director’s name is Rob Marshall, not Bob.
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Also to correct you further—Penelope Cruz did not sing in Volver (do some research) She was dubbed.
And Daniel Day-lewis has never played a ‘tyrant’. He has however played a effete prissy fop (in a Room with a view), a repressed 19th century gentlemen (age of innocence), and a womanizing Czechslovakian. (all to critical acclaim). You are of course entitled to your opinon about his performance, but calling him ‘wretched’, then ‘ok’ and then ‘fine’ sounds like you were too hung up on his more demonstrative “badass” type characters to suspend your disbelief..
Another thing–suggesting people fastforward through the dialogue to me suggests that you have short attention span.
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All valid points Sharon. However, I did feel he was a tyrant in There Will Be Blood. But thank you for being the first to present an intelligent response. I do not agree with your statements on my short attention span. I guess I should have been more clear. The dialogue did not add anything particularly compelling to the story, which is often the problem with musicals despite my love for them. If people are going to spend their time watching a movie I suggest they watch something other than Nine, but if they want to see some great musical performances they should watch it for them and not the story. And there is no question that Daniel Day Lewis is one of the “greatest” male actors as I said above. He just was not the right choice for the part being that he had the weakest voice of the bunch, and his performance just did not hold up to his many other amazing performances. I actually think Christian Bale would have been an much better choice, although a tad too young for the role. Hopefully you will comment on my Precious article when posted.
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