Nine: or case # 86763 for an unfairly bashed movie

Edd-N-Furter

An all-star cast with 6 Oscar winners, 1 previous nominee and a grammy winner, all directed by the Oscar-nominated director of the Best Picture winner Chicago. Based on the successful Broadway musical Nine (which is inspired by Fellini's 8 1/2). What could go wrong? According to critics, everything.

Well, this movie is not perfect and it has flaws (especially in the screenplay and the directing), but it's far from being the cinematic crap many critics claimed.

Visually contains some stunning elements like Dion Beebe's remarkable cinematography or Collen Atwood's gorgeous costume design and the recreation of 1960's Rome is simply astonishing.

As i mentioned before the flaws of the movie come with Rob Marshall's flat direction in some parts of the movie and the screenplay that has several plot holes (like Hudson's character, who absolutely has no business in this movie) and can't integrate perfectly some of the musical numbers to the main plot and the fact that Guido is a character that some people see as hard to sympathize since some of his actions can be seen as misogynists.

The MVP is the cast: all of them shine with what's given to them, Day-Lewis (who's often called as a miscast) captures perfectly the spirit of a filmmaker in trouble. Dench is a sassy delight even if her number is the weakest of the movie. Hudson is deliciously seductive (although her character is completely pointless). Fergie is an absolute revelation. Penelope Cruz gives another remarkable performance as the vulgar but lovely mistress (although her dramatic scenes outshine her musical number). Nicole Kidman makes wonders with her small on-screen time and gives the most passionate and energetic musical rendition of the movie. But Marion Cotillard's performance is the real standout: a perfect mix of anger, pain and vulnerability as Guido's suffering wife Luisa.

Overall, this movie is an enjoyable experience mostly because of the cast and the production values that didn't deserve to flop as badly as it did.

score 8/10

Edd-N-Furter 31 March 2010

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2229144/