Nine: A Musical of a Different Color

Rob Marshall’s second attempt at translating a Broadway show to the big screen isn’t your grandmother’s old-fashioned type of song and dance musical. Hell, it isn’t even Marshall’s first musical adaptation (Chicago). Instead, he has given us something else entirely. It is both an homage to Italian cinema of the 1960s and the story of an artist plagued by selfishness, excess, and writer’s block. It just happens to have music in it as well.

Based on a Broadway musical version of Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, Nine takes us back to Rome at the height of it’s glamor in 1965 when it was the playground for beautiful and decadent artists, models, and bon vivants of all shapes and sizes. Anyone familiar with films of the era like La Dolce Vita or Juliet of the Spirits will notice the touches in every frame from the sporty little cars to the sunglasses at all hours of the day and existential crises for the main characters. The crisis in this tale falls on Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), a world-renowned director being pushed into production on his next film despite the lack of a script or even an idea of what the film should be about. Guido searches for inspiration through the women who have touched his life both past and present including his wife, his muse, his mistress, his mother, and a whore among others. Some of them are wisely blunt and some of them just attempt to feed his ego, but all of them add to his insanity in some form or another.

Now what makes this different from most musicals isn’t the exceptionally star-studded cast or gorgeous Italian locations but the way that the music is used throughout the story. Most modern musicals, if they want to have any hope of succeeding with the public, include only catchy songs that viewers will want to download after they’ve gone home to sing along with, hence the current trend of writing musicals composed only of pre-tested pop songs like Mamma Mia and Rock of Ages. That strategy is all well and good and lord knows I’ve belted out “Voulez-Vous” more than a couple of times in the shower but it doesn’t always have be like that. Nine certainly isn’t built that way and despite some critics complaining that you won’t be humming the songs while you leave the theatre, I don’t think you should dismiss the film entirely because of that. The songs and performances of them are more about expressing character and depth. None of them will or would ever be Top 40 hits but the way Marshall shot them and weaved them into the wonderfully written dialogue scenes is almost masterful and a joy to watch if you’re a lover of movies and movies about making movies.

I could spend pages discussing each of the female roles and their relationship to Guido but I’ll try to be brief since there are so many of them. By far the highlight of the lot is the ever-enchanting Marion Cotillard who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses working today. Her role as Guido’s suffering wife is both heart breaking and strong and her two musical numbers are among the film’s best. Penelope Cruz is also great as the almost-crazy woman on the side – a role she essentially perfected in last year’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Judi Dench, as Guido’s saucy costume designer, is amazing as always. Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, and Sophia Loren all turn in enjoyable but brief performances and last but not least is Fergie who performs the film’s most rousing number, “Be Italian” with enough gusto to make you want to petition her to abandon her current music style with the Black Eyed Peas and take on showtunes full time.

Nine is by no means the year’s best film and it will likely be considered a flop by the general movie going public. Nevertheless, there is definitely an audience out there for this movie and even though it may be small right now, I feel somewhat certain that appreciation of it will grow over time. Audiences and critics flocked to Marshall’s Chicago and the stage of Roxy Hart’s mind with all of its razzle dazzle with ease, but the soundstage of Guido’s mind (where the music of Nine plays out) is just a little more cryptic, complicated, and less-instantly catchy, but in the end I think its richer and has more to say. I personally hope to visit the Italy of Nine again and if you’re a lover of cinema I think you’ll find something there to cherish as well.

Grade: A-

For an opposing Poptimal point of view check out Nine: Hits A Sour Note by Inisia Lewis and Nine is Fine by Liz Cooper’s