Review of Nine (2009) by Rakeem M — 31 Jul 2011

A bit of an "All That Jazz" retread, but a little Fosse never hurt anybody. I really enjoyed the film for what it was, a big splashy melodramatic spectacle full of A-listers and pure glitz & glamor. The cast was great, I loved Cruz and Cotillard, and anytime Sophia Loren and Judi Dench get to shine on screen is time and money well spent. Daniel Day-Lewis wouldn't have been my first choice to play Guido, I don't see why they didn't go with Antonio Banderas (who played the character on Broadway), but his interpretation of the role didn't get in the way of my enjoying the film. Maybe it's style over substance but it's entertaining and great to look at.

****UPDATE*****.

After seeing 8 1/2, there's no way I can keep this film at 4 stars. There's just so much that this adaptation is missing, the most detrimental decision has to be the treatment of Guido and Luisa. One suffers from a miscalculated casting decision and the other from a weak decision on the part of the screenwriters. In the original, Luisa is more than just a sad sack who's been beaten down by her husbands philandering ways. She's bitter, feisty and (understandably) a bit mean, showing us a clear indication of the strength required to stand by a man who's been doing her wrong for so long. Cotillard's performance is Oscar-worthy, and she really anchors the film, but she's done a disservice by a script that refuses to let her explore Luisa's inner strength. And then there's Guido, who in 8 1/2 is whimsical, charming and only sporadically unnerved, while here he's brooding and way too intense, hardly ever cracking a smile. But that's what you get with Daniel Day-Lewis, a fine actor for sure, but all wrong for this part. The genius of Marcello Mastroianni's performance is the fact that it doesn't feel like a performance, we get the feeling of Guido's exasperation without constantly being burdened by the weight of it. The tone is also strikingly different, with 8 1/2 never losing it's dreamlike and comical feeling - Nine comes off as too intense and meandering as well. I still contend that Nine is an enjoyable film, but it's not the achievement that it could have been. I can't watch it the same way after seeing the film that inspired it.