Review of Nine (2009) by Ryangee — 27 Sep 2010

A film's stylistic vision is perhaps the aspect of film that I most personally adore. But although a film may employ all of the chic characteristics possible, it is completely futile if it possesses a lack of plot. Unfortunately, this is ultimately the importune description of Rob Marshall's(Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha) Nine.

Nine is a story of a director, Guido Contini (Daniel Day Lewis), that finds himself in a creative rut and endless romantic quandaries. So in facile terminology, the film is a story solely about writer's block. Though I was doubtful of the mundane premise, I was positive that the music and art direction of the film would compensate for it. While I was somewhat satisfied with the musical numbers- particularly Marion Cotillard's Take It All- it did not possess enough meaning to have any sort of relative significance when watching the film.

Before exemplifying the logic of my criticism, I must compliment the brilliance of the art direction within Nine. The choreography of the film is just mesmerizing as Fergie and her company effortlessly implement images of sand combined with dance. Also, the transition between gray scale and color in Kate Hudson's number was just simply creative in the way it depicted modernness versus antiquity. Penelope Cruz does execute an adequate performance, but having only a small portion on screen, I find myself confused of her Best Actress nomination. The true star of the film is Marion Cotillard, the subtle but complex manner of her performances is perhaps the highlight of the film. If you enjoyed her performance in french biopic La Vie En Rose, you will undoubtedly find satisfaction in this portion of the film.

Here is the characteristic of the film that makes all of the above compliments ineffective: the numbers are stringed in immensely vague manner. Many of the performances occur abruptly, with hardly no lead-in or relevance to the plot. What it comes down to is that Nine resembles MTV prior to the 2000s decade. It is just a series of music videos that only slightly are relevant towards each other. The plot is so weak, that it cannot support the brilliance of the art direction. It is hard to enjoy the sequences if they hardly have any sense. This leads me to question, who wants to watch a film about writer's block? Additionally, it does not help if the lyrics are so meaningless and simple (one of the chorus lines is "my husband makes movies").

If you are solely watching Nine for the musical performances, then it will fulfill that desire. But overall, Nine is not as a whole a good film. There is no memorable plot, which ultimately makes the music hollow and meaningless. Nine is an impressive sequence of music numbers, not an overall splendid film.