Nine
This visually spectacular musical directed by Rob Marshall is based on the Fellini classic 8½.
The movie is a stunning mix of Italian cityscapes and countryside intermixed with burlesque song and dance numbers reminiscent of the Folies Bergère.
The loose thread of the plot appears as a metaphor for the story of film director Guido Contini, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, sliding down the wrong side of success and struggling to recapture the inspiration that has made him a household name. Alternatively seduced and tortured by the significant women in his life, the film portrays a man whose genius is touching the lives of strangers through the medium of film but he is sadly lacking insight in his personal relationships.
The film is packed with stars, including Judi Dench, who is outstanding as Guido’s long-time costume designer and one true friend, and a cameo role for Sophia Loren as the young Guido’s mother.
Beautifully shot black-and-white flashbacks hint at a suffocating mother–son relationship and that the young Guido was marked out from an early age as following a different star.
Crumbling under the pressure created by the success of his early films and striving to live up to the near iconic status he has achieved in the eyes of the Italian public, Guido attempts to create yet another masterpiece. Disintegrating under the pressure, he blindly squanders the love of the three women in his adult life – his wife (Marion Cotillard), mistress (Penelope Cruz) and film star muse (Nicole Kidman). The story is interspersed with musical numbers that reflect the adult Guido’s one-dimensional relationships with women as objects of sexual power and lust and of their status in Italy in the pre-feminist 1960s.
Redemption of sorts arrives in the final scene where the adult Guido finds the strength and maturity to restart his film career while accepting that the spark of his genius is deeply rooted in his childhood, and in the retention of that simple view of the adult world and all its complexity.
This is a thought-provoking film. A commentary on the flawed nature of human genius, the costs incurred by others and the incompleteness of the dream, but also of how all our lives can be enriched by the grace of dreams.
Nine was nominated for four Oscars: Best Achievement in Art Direction, Best Achievement in Costume Design, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Penelope Cruz).
Rating: 2/5
Jo Bates
