Nine
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard and Judy Dench
Directed by Rob Marshall
Riddle, Mystery, Enigma
Watching NINE made me think of Winston Churchill’s famous quote about the Soviet Union in 1939. He described the Soviets as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” For our purposes, NINE is the riddle. The mystery is the movie inside of NINE. It’s called Italia, the immodest title of the latest effort by famed Italian director Guido Contini (Day-Lewis). The enigma is what’s really going on. You see, even though cast and crew have been assembled, costumes sewn and sets built, Contini has no script and no idea what he’s going to make. Ergo, Italia isn’t a movie at all. It’s not even an idea. But the dilemma Contini faces is a perfect opportunity to unwrap the enigma, i.e. Contini himself, by examining his relationships with the important women in his life.
By the way, it’s also a musical.
NINE is actually a good film, easy to follow, based on the stage play of the same name. The stage play was, in turn, based upon Fellini’s Italian cinema classic, 8½, starring Marcello Mastroianni in the role of the director back in 1963. Somewhere along the way inflation took hold and 8½ morphed into Nine. I guess what I’m really saying is that NINE is a movie about a stage play about a movie. [Talk about your riddles, wrapped in mysteries, inside enigmas!]
But enough word games. Back to NINE.
The important women in Contini’s life range from his dead Mother (Sophia Loren) to his suffering wife (Marion Cotillard) to his temperamental mistress (Penelope Cruz). They also include his friend and costume designer (Judi Dench) and his leading lady (Nicole Kidman). Throw a frisky journalist (Kate Hudson) and a loose lady from his childhood (Stacey Ferguson, aka Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas) into the mix and we have quite the cast. All sing and act, some better than others in one or both departments. The standouts are Dench and Cotillard. To be fair, they get more screen time and the best roles. Dench knocks it out of the park singing and vamping her way through the best musical piece in the movie. Cotillard takes acting honors for her struggle in dealing with the enigma known as her husband.
We learn a great deal about Contini through these women, basically what a self-centered, self-involved mess he is. His films have brought him acclaim but ruined his life, leaving him devoid of artistic inspiration for another effort. Daniel Day-Lewis is reliably great as Contini, commonplace for him in almost any film he appears. Whether he can turn things around, in both life and artistic efforts, depends on whether he can self-reflect and change for the better. The journey he makes is what the film, and the women, are all about.
As to whether he succeeds or not, I’ll leave that a mystery. Or is it a riddle? Maybe it’s an enigma.
Rating: 7 out of 10 (recommended) on the Movie Fraction Rating System™
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