Nonureva Really Surprised!

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

mark.waltz The original "8 1/2" worked because of how Fellini perceived it as an analogy of the troubled minds of great artists. A combination of ego, artistic integrity, mental illness, repression, arrested development and the unconscious desire to be loved and cherished beyond all human incapability. It's a noble try to take the rather obscure Broadway musical hit that had a cult following but was nearly forgotten by the time of its 2002 revival. With so many musicals needing a film version, "Nine" was a surprising choice, but having seen the original with Raul Julia and the revival with both Antonio Banderas and john Stamos, I was curious to see what they did with it.The Maury Yeston score is perhaps one of the most beautiful, complex to sing, and a challenge to any singing actor, let alone a non-singing one. For Daniel Day Lewis to take the part of director Guido Contini on was a delightful choice, and he is excellent. He's a combination of all the aspects I mention in my first paragraph, although his ego is subtle and never makes him cocky. Marianne Cotillard is a perfect choice for his long suffering wife, with Penelope Cruz deliciously sexy as his mistress. All of the women in his 40 years are introduced in the excellently staged opening, with big first shots of everybody revealing something about their character. The shot of the legendary Sophia Loren as his mother is an emotional one that still has me tearing up. But it becomes obvious very quickly that there is too much going on, and it becomes rather dizzying to try and catch everything. While I like the work of Judi Dench normally, I did not really embrace her as a former Folies Bergere headliner, and would have preferred Chita Rivera in the part. Dench sings acceptably as do a good majority of the non- singing actors, but she just wasn't right for this part. The musical numbers also worked better in stage, and "Nine" should be more than just a two hour music video with occasional dramatic scenes edited in. But I can't fault director Rob Marshall who tried to strike "Chicago" magic again. The film doesn't flow all that well, and there just seems to be just a desire to see the film make its point and move on. Some aspects of it really prove the idea that this is not going to be a movie musical that one would want to see over and over again. Intentions are right, but something of a spark is definitely missing.

BoyFabo First, I'd like to let you know the good things about this film:Well acted. It's not a surprise because all these well known stars are good and always have been. Penélope Cruz and Marion Cotillard give the best performances of the film, and of course Daniel Day-Lewis is a believable Guido.Nice musical numbers. The musical numbers are well acted too and have a good photography. Once again, Penélope Cruz and Marion Cotillard give the best dancing sequences, Dame Judi Dench is also very fun in hers and Fergie's voice shines in hers (she's the only one who's a singer). Good art direction and costume design.The bad things.Fergie's performance. She's clearly not an actress. It's not an awful performance, but she's below everyone else. Her best moment comes in her musical part when she shows that voice of hers, nobody sings as good as her. She's got a very little screen time, so don't let this make you not watch the film if you're interested.The screenplay. It's the only (and big) mistake of the film. It doesn't go anywhere since it's only some scene and then a musical number that don't make it advance at all. Without the musical numbers, the film would be like 40 minutes long.So... It's not a bad film, but it's mediocre, the musical numbers are the ones saving it from being a total bore. I'd recommend it if you like musicals and want to see all these good and beautiful actresses work with Daniel Day-Lewis who's also a very good actor. But don't even look at its poster if you want a good story to go along with the singing and dancing.

leplatypus This is one of the finest jewels in Hollywood crap crown! So much famous names, so much budget to shoot a stinker like this, it's amazing! There's absolutely no story as it's about a lousy director seeking inspiration! The music, songs are just horrible! The musical is poor as they kept using this dark roman arena and the dancing is just at the level of music videos now: lascivious girls jiggling. And for the cast, they found the exquisite idea to have them speak English but with a loud Italian accent, just to tell the movie happens in Italy ! Day-Lewis must be very shameful of his participation as he looks his feet, bent behind shades all the time. Fortunately, Penélope is here and brings the only good moments: she is truly the only one to show that's she's a fine dancer and a true actress...

sashank_kini-1 About one year ago, I went to watch a Gujarati play on the theme of 'harrassment of women by their NRI husbands', written and directed by an acquaintance who was pursuing his Postgraduate Degree in Dramatics. As this was a local play with a completely local cast, I decided to bring a buddy along for moral support in case the play stank. Unsurprisingly, the play proved to be a massive disappointment with its crude treatment of the subject matter and ridiculously unnecessary focus on supporting characters (like making the gravedigger the lead in Hamlet). Yet, to my bewilderment, people cheered on and gave it a standing ovation it didn't deserve. I realized later that the antagonist in the play was a very popular name among Gujarati audiences, and so they cheered him on as he hammed endlessly, while I looked on bemused at all the beaming faces around me.When the seven ladies of Nine (Dench, Cotillard, Cruz, Loren, Fergie, Hudson and Kidman) turn up one after the other in the opening musical sequence of Nine, I sat looking at the screen with the same bemused expression, and the question 'What am I supposed to feel here?' crossed my mind. These seven wonderful dames of acting may have caused a flurry of applauses had this been a live play (Nine is originally a Broadway musical), but they little impact when they such a grand entry on film for the simple reason that the entire thing is 'filmed'.I have not seen Fellini's autobiographical classic 8 ½ either (on which both the play and the film are based), although the DVD does wait for me in the cupboard (will follow Mr. Roger Ebert's advice in his review and catch the film tonight). This makes me more alien towards Nine but not too much because I have seen Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita' four times and regard it as one of my favorite movies. So the parts which evoked a sense of familiary were Nicole Kidman's 'ideal woman' character and Daniel Day Lewis' 'detached persona looking for a centre', which Marcello Mastroianni played excellently in LDV. The main question here is: does Nine work as a musical and a movie independently in its own right? The answer is sadly a no.The experience of watching Nine can be compared to visiting 'Marina Abramović's – The Artist is Present' exhibition without having any clue of who she is or what she has done. The film has characters who represent characters of another film but do not distinguish themselves to become characters of THIS film, thereby seeming like wandering apparitions who don't really care about each other or this film. They function like the (actually) moving portraits in the Harry Potter stories; they wink, they smile, they laugh, they cry like humans but in the end, they remain portraits. And the worst part is that they're given such dark and ugly sets to sing and dance around, robbing all the richness off the mise-en-scène. The reason for such unappealing sets is that all the performance pieces are figments of Guido Contini's often prurient imagination. The protagonist suffers from artistic block after two of his films flop following a streak of critical and commercial successes. After one reporter boldly asks him during a press interview whether 'he has nothing to speak about', Contini performs a great escape and books a room for himself at a hotel under a pseudonym. His next movie 'Italia' does not have a script yet and its cast and crew are left stranded without Contini, who spends much of his time at parties and events dreaming and fantasizing about the women in his life. There's angelic Claudia Jennsen: his inspiration, Luisa: his lonely wife, Carla: his sexy mistress, Lilli: his costume designer, Stephanie: an alluring reporter, Saraghina: a prostitute from his childhood, and lastly his Mamma. And unfortunately, everybody gets a number or two to perform (in Contini's mind). This basically goes on in a repetitive manner till the end, where finally the plot decides to move another inch or two.There is not one song I can recollect now, except 'Cinema Italiano' which too stays in mind only because of its irritating hook. The other reason I think the number is easy to remember is that it's got a livelier and brighter set with performances we can actually see. The rest of the numbers are hampered by lack of light; if one has seen Gene Kelly's super-duper-brilliant 'Singin' in the Rain' he or she would remember the incredibly colorful sets and lighting which instantly evokes the performances to memory. The performers themselves in Nine do not impress us for most part. Fergie, Dench and Cottilard know how to 'sell a performance'; Fergie as most would know is an established singer-performer while Dench has a grande damme showstopper charm. Cruz is predictably sexy (with delectable bosoms) while sex-goddess Loren is motherly. And what about the man of the house: Mr. Daniel Day Lewis?Oh, what a disappointment. Bringing a characteristic method approach to become Guido Contini, Lewis fails to get the 'performance element' that protagonists of a musical require that too in plenty. And I remember actress Meryl Streep telling in her interview with James Lipton that 'she added the element of performance in her acting after being mesmerized by one of Lisa Minelli's performances'; watch 'Mamma Mia' and you'll get what she means. Actors in a musical should have the ability of selling themselves through their characters. Gene Kelly does it best. Lewis however buries himself deep within his character and makes his whole act damn gloomy. And he ain't that good a singer either. Neither is he as addictive and infectious as Streep, who radiates even in her worst films. In fact, Lewis on a bad day digs the grave for his character and the whole film. That's a tragedy.