Nine

Daniel Day-Lewis does a tremendous job playing Italian director Guido Contini in Rob Marshall’s movie adaptation of the musical Nine. But when you leave the theatre what you’ll remember most are the women, the beautiful, strong, SEXY women. Each woman is given a musical number to showcase her talents and there were times when I just wanted to stop the film and hit rewind to enjoy it again.

Each woman had her role in Guido’s life. It was glorious to see Sophia Loren playing Guido’s mother. Even after all these years she is still alluring and formidable. Nicole Kidman plays the starlet, the muse for Guido’s cinematic dreams. Her icy charm is perfectly adapted to her role as a movie queen. Kate Hudson portrays an American reporter. Her character reflects the American infatuation with Italian cinema in the sixties. Her musical romp reminds us of the times of skinny ties, espresso, Italian sunglasses and Vespa scooters.

The other women in Guido’s life are Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, and Stacy Ferguson (Fergie of The Black-Eyed Peas). Judi plays Guido’s costumer and longtime friend. She is the only one in his life who can be completely honest with him. Marion is Guido’s long-suffering wife. Once an actress discovered by Guido, she gave up her movie career to be his wife. Her musical numbers will rip your heart out as she comes to terms with her husband’s infidelity. Penelope Cruz is the mistress, and her song and dance is so sexy that afterwards I felt like lighting up a cigarette. But the number that impressed me the most was Fergie’s. Alternating between a black and white memory of a young boy at the beach and a full-blown musical number on stage, Fergie instructs us on what it means to be Italian. This anthem is a showstopper and the choreography is brilliant. Alone, it is worth the price of admission.

Since Nine is based on a theatrical production, and it’s subject matter is film, there is a lot of mixing of styles here. I think that Rob Marshall does a sensational job of holding it all together. However, for me, the mixing of styles lost some of the emotional impact. I’m just not that good at switching gears. There’s a difference between theatrical musicals being filmed and a movie musical. For example The Sound of Music was filmed like a movie. Imagine the difference if someone had just filmed the play. We would have missed all that fabulous scenery. Nine tries to do it all and most of the time it works. Rob Marshall has made a very creative film.

Rating: First Run Did I mention that these women are sexy?