Nine

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz. Directed by Rob Marshall. M.

copyright Weinstein company

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While the title adds another half a number to the title of the famous film it's based on, this musical adaptation is worth only half of its inspiration's artistic and cinematic value.

Director Rob Marshall (Chicago) and writers Michael Tolkin and the late Anthony Minghella have created a screen version of the 1982 Broadway musical, revived in 2003, which itself was a stage version of renowned Italian director Frederico Fellini's 1963 classic 8 1/2.

Nine boasts a great cast, led by Daniel Day-Lewis as famous Italian film director Guido Contini (played by Marcello Mastroianni in 8 1/2, and by Raul Julia and Antonio Banderas on stage), who in Rome in 1965 is about to start shooting his latest movie, called Italia.

The problem is, Guido is suffering director's block and has no script ready for the cast and production crew.

As the pressure mounts, Guido's memories and fantasies blend with his current creative and marital crises, all mostly focusing on seven significant women in his life and also a critical time in his childhood.

Indeed, the film's title refers to Guido's age at a decisive time in his youth, although the musical's composer/lyricist, Maury Yeston, has said that adding music to 8 1/2 "is like half a number more" (the title of Fellini's film referred to the number of movies he had made at that time).

Star power illuminates the influential women in Guido's life: his costume designer and confidante (Judi Dench); his favourite film star and muse (Nicole Kidman); his smouldering, if sad, mistress (Penelope Cruz); a prostitute from his childhood village (Fergie); his mother (a well-preserved Sophia Loren); and his long-suffering wife (Marion Cotillard), whom he's trying to stop from leaving him. The seventh woman, a fashion writer (Kate Hudson), represents existing temptation but is practically a gratuitous role.

All these actresses and Day-Lewis sing – with Day-Lewis and Cotillard getting two songs each – leaving moviegoers to gauge both their acting and singing and dancing (or strutting) ability.

Cotillard, Cruz, Dench and Kidman are admirable on the acting front, with Fergie, Hudson and Loren having few demands placed on them in that regard. The most memorable songs are Dench's Folies Bergeres, Fergie's forceful burlesque-style Be Italian, Kidman's plaintive Unusual Way and Cotillard's striptease Take It All.

The latter is one of three new songs written for the movie, the other two being Loren's Look at the Moon and Hudson's flashy go-go dancing Cinema Italiano.

Day-Lewis is one of the best actors of his generation – and he commendably portrays a celebrated imaginative artist who is in a funk, having lost his artistic vision and wrestling with forces affecting his life – but, despite possibly thinking "If Johnny Depp can do it, so can I", this could be the first and last movie in which he sings (actually, forgettably, sing-talks).

The individual songs, as well as the opening and closing numbers, are well executed, with Marshall showing his flair for bringing theatrical performances to dynamic life on screen.

What's missing is some compelling reason to care about Guido's dreams, recollections and floundering. The slender storyline becomes a servant to the songs rather than the master of our interest, embellished and enhanced by the music.

The result is a story that proves to be too much a vehicle for each singing performance – a production line of production numbers. Everyone eventually gets a turn but at the end of them all, an insight into the psychology of the creative process and the effect of relationships that inspire, seduce and sustain it is only superficially explored.

In mixing vivid colour with monochromatic scenes (the latter particularly but not only in flashbacks), Marshall also tries to mimic Fellini in cinematic look. But paying homage to Fellini's style and his use of memories, dreams, fantasies and desire does not, by itself, achieve the kind of cinematic experience and accomplishment of a Fellini film.

Those who go to Nine for the musical experience alone should be sufficiently satisfied with what they get. But as an overall entity, it fails to provide the involvement and impact a musical movie should afford to be considered a success.

- © Fairfax NZ News