Review: ‘Nine’ ends up as a muddled musical!

Spicezee Bureau

The much hyped musical ‘Nine’ made on a high budget does not live up to its expectations. Although the Federico Fellini-inspired song and dance spectacular has Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Sophia Loren, Judi Dench and Nicole Kidman performing in it, yet director Rob Marshall’s film ends up as an amiable but muddled music-video. The storyline is simple, based on an award-winning Broadway stage musical, which follows an Italian movie director through a mid-life career and personal crisis and his entanglements with women. But in a musical, the presentation is what matters the most. And here the musical numbers are magnificently staged but the songs are not all that great — including the three new additions. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Guido Contini, a 1960s Italian filmmaker surrounded by glamour, media and hangers-on as he prepares to start his latest movie. It helps little that he has no clue what his next film is going to be about. He is suffering from a writer’s block. Guido tries to create something with help from the women in his life, past and present. - departed mom (Sophia Loren), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), a lusty fashion reporter (Kate Hudson), his designer (Dench), his muse (Kidman) and his wife (Marion Cotillard). The concept is gripping but the musical interludes are overly stagy and there is no continuity. The women look gorgeous but since little time has been allotted to all of them, therefore, justice has not been done to the talented lot. But Marion Cotillard’s performance stands out as a disillusioned woman. Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella share credit for the screenplay, which has some witty lines but mostly offers patter between songs. An average fare! Rating: Two cheers!