'Nine': Misguided Love Letter to Fellini

by Brett Parker

Nine is a musical that plays all the notes but never gets a firm grasp on the music. The material itself is based on Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, one of the greatest films ever made, although this adaptation fails to realize what made the earlier film so significant. It doesn't disrespect the earlier material, or even really try to outdo it, but it never really brings anything substantial to the table. Not even the addition of show tunes, cheerfully mediocre at best, adds anything to the aesthetic value of the film. It's a testament to the art of Federico Fellini that the flash and pizazz of this film, obviously inspired by his talents, may just be enough to salvage this enterprise.

Nine is a big screen adaptation of a 1982 Broadway musical by Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston that, in itself, reimagined Fellini's 8 1/2 for the stage. The story follows a famous Italian filmmaker named Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) at a crisis in his life. He has no idea what his ninth film is to be about, although anxious producers push forward relentlessly with this unknown project. All he really knows about it is the title ("Italia") and that it will star his actress muse, Claudia Jenssen (Nicole Kidman).

While wrestling with ideas for this troubled film, Guido also must deal with the complexities of all the females in his life. His wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard) is fed up with his lying and womanizing, his mistress Carla (Penelope Cruz) grows an unhealthy love for him, a flirty journalist named Stephanie (Kate Hudson) dispenses shallow interpretations of his films. Always looming in his memory is the ghost of his Mamma (Sophia Loren) and Saraghina (Fergie), a whore from his childhood who represents his guilt towards women.

8 1/2 is at once both a vivid and surreal masterpiece regarding filmmaking and womanizing. It presented a wonderfully sympathetic Marcello Mastroianni in the role of Guido, who agonized helplessly over the realization that his film career and love life were weighing down heavily on each other. The film itself is a masterstroke of self-reflexivity, as Fellini used his conflicts and frustrations with the project as an active aspect of the plot. The hidden theme within the film is finding something real in something superficial, whether it be truth within filmmaking or love within womanizing.

Nine more or less pretends to represent the same thing, but it never really penetrates beneath the superficial. It's all surface, making clunky efforts to unearth the thoughtful meditations Fellini displayed so wonderfully and effortlessly. Director Rob Marshall (Chicago) plays everything for a Stanley Donen-like gloss and this leaves scenes of spiritual anguish and romantic brusings looking plastic. Perhaps if Marshall employed Fellini's tactic for allowing free-flowing human drama to infuse a grand premise, the film would be more grabbing. Nine is only Marshall's third film as a feature director, so maybe he needed five more on his resume before he could understand Fellini's point-of-view on this material.

Perhaps this musical is tough to engage because you really don't know what to make of Day-Lewis' Guido. Of course Mastroianni in the original role was unforgettable, for he was one of the most masculine, stylish, and natural actors in cinematic history. So wonderfully laid-back and exquisitely realized was his performance that it seems like no one can fill his shoes. Day-Lewis, the great multi-Oscar winning method actor, is completely game for the challenge. He has a notable singing voice and a surprisingly-convincing Italian accent, yet we never feel a strong sense of anguish and exhaustion from him. He makes Guido a tad too bouncy and eccentric, while Guido is essentially a man too weary and worn-out to be such things anymore. It's amusing to watch a skilled method actor labor extensively to pull off something Mastroianni did so effortlessly.

It's such a grand disappointment to me that Javier Bardem, the original choice to play Guido, pulled out of the role in pre-production. Marshall had him selected to play Guido, but Bardem wanted to take some time off to recover from exhaustion (having just made the award rounds for No Country for Old Men). I think the Oscar-Winner would've scored an absolute touchdown. His performance in Vicky Cristina Barcelona is proof alone that Bardem has what it takes to be a modern day Mastroianni, for he masterfully displayed the same kind of casual masculinity and passionate romantic appetites. I suspect its a great loss to modern cinema that we'll never see Bardem's Guido.

I did, in fact, try to absorb this movie in its own right as a musical, seeing if I would still enjoy it had I never seen 8 1/2. In doing this, I run into the problem that the musical numbers are not very particularly good. They mostly sound like watered-down generic show tunes, failing to excite or resonate (not even "Cinema Italiano" an original tune created to spice up the soundtrack, fails to stir things up). "Be Italian" is the only song that can easily be evoked in the memory, and even that one never reaches it's fullest potential. A great show tune isn't bound by plot and generics but can stand on its own with a distinct energy and rhythm (Dreamgirls delivered such great songs in waves).

If there's one area in which Nine outdoes 8 1/2, it's in the women. For the female characters, Fellini employed undeniable beauties of their era, but Marshall dishes out glamour goddesses that can melt any man's heart. The actresses here hit on full full sexiness yet never skewer their character's inner-complexities. You'll turn to absolute putty watching Cruz perform "A Call From the Vatican" or Fergie doing "Be Italian," both in skimpy attire. Cotillard is both simultaneously lovely and heartbreaking while Hudson cannily evokes the ideal of 1960s Superblonde glam.

So the soundtrack is a dud and the deeper themes meander hopelessly, yet I strangely find myself recommending the film. I think I was seduced not only by the women, but also the Italian exoticness, the immaculate styles, and the film world musings. It's hard for me to resist that packs such traits in even the shakiest of packages. Perhaps I'm just excited to see a contemporary film being so proudly and openly Felliniesque. A misguided love letter to Fellini is better than no love letter at all, I think.

So the question remains: is this movie for you? If you're a fan of Fellini and 8 1/2, then you'll find it to be a slightly-amusing cartoon. If you're a fan of Broadway musicals, then these bland show tunes just might work for you. If you're a fan of gorgeous women, exotic locations, and the world of cinema, then you certainly won't be bored. I wasn't bored here, but I wasn't elevated either.