Movie: Nine

After seeing this movie, there are two things I wish for:

1. The ability to successfully break into song and dance (successfully) anywhere I want
2. That Daniel Day-Lewis (DDL) finally says “I know, I’m the sh*t” when people praise his acting skills

Both of those happening would make me really happy.

I’m a sucker for a good musical. Song and dance? Bring it on. I love singing about my feelings. So I capitalized on my stepmom’s secret DDL crush and dragged her and my dad out to see this movie last week. And as a big Rob Marshall fan, I was ready to be ridiculously jealous of the fashion, scenery and musical talent.

So let’s take a closer look.

Movie: Nine

Rating: PG-13

Release date: December 25, 2009

Everyday Adventures’ grade: B-

Summary: Guido (DDL) is an Italian director with a lot of problems. He has a movie that’s about to start shooting with no script and he’s having trouble juggling all the women in his life, including his wife (Marian Cotillard), mistress (Penelope Cruz), costume designer (Judi Dench) and muse (Nicole Kidman).

My thoughts: Sweet lord I wanted to really love this movie and for the most part I did but I think I fell victim to some early reviews, which were mixed.

The high points: DDL amazing as always and Rob Marshall’s direction, use of space and light were visually stunning. I love the location scenes in Italy, which made me want a mini sports car and cigarette right away, and Marian Cotillard was really great. Her musical numbers were strong and she looked every bit as tortured as she meant to and should have been. Guido is a total cad. I even found myself saying out loud “good God he slept with her too???!”

And now the bad, I was just…underwhelmed. The musical numbers didn’t feel like a fit with the plot points in which they appeared nor did they feel natural. Kate Hudson was gorgeous but had such a minor role, she wasn’t really necessary in the film at all, same with Fergie, who had the strongest song and best choreography for , “Be Italian.” Fergie, Sophia Loren and Kate Hudson were not really relevant to the larger storyline and are each on screen for about…20 minutes. And usually when I see musicals, I can pick a few really catchy songs that will come out of it and outside of Fergies, none really wow’ed me.

As I heard in early reviews, the story is weak and it is. DDL does such a great job of playing this cad of a guy but the crowded cast and random musical numbers makes the story hard to really grasp on to before it implodes and you don’t know if the movie is actually done.

Still, the look is good, music is great and Penelope Cruz shows me again why she does “crazy” so well. I don’t think this will really win anything of importance at the Golden Globes or Oscars but if it had a pared down cast and stronger story, I think it would have been better.

Okay, time for me to go practice my jazz hands. What’s your favorite musical?