A musical version of Fellini's '8½', 'Nine' (because apparently music adds another half) follows an important director who tries to find inspiration for his new film, looking in the important women of his life, while his own personal life is going down the hill.
The screenplay is quite bad. The fault is partly due to the original musical's screenplay itself (the addition of those musics into '8½' were terrible); but most of the fault is due to the film's own screenplay, done by the hit-and-miss Michael Tolkin and the vastly overrated Anthony Minghella. The director, Rob Marshall (from the overrated 'Chicago'), tries to make too much of a show, not only prioritizing style over substance but in the end forcing too much the visual of the film.
Why did I have any reason to believe this could work?
Oh, yes. The cast. Eight big name actors in here; Rob Marshall always has to have a 'meaningful' cast in his musicals.
Daniel Day-Lewis, one of my favorite actors, is unbelievably bad in here. He is apathetic and charisma-less, never truly trying to be charming at all; a far call from Mastroianni, who played the same role to perfection in '8½'. His singing is more than just inconsistent; when you think he is beginning to do it right...
The actresses are even farther behind. Fergie might be a singer, but a very bad one; I'm glad she had such a short appearance. Doubly so for Kate Hudson: she manages to make an already bad song even more unbearable, both from her terrible singing and from the terrible scene she sings in. Nicole Kidman acts well, but she already showed in 'Moulin Rouge' that she is not a good singer, and her faces looks too plastic. Same for Sophia Loren; she was rather beautiful when younger, now she looks like an alien with her face like that. I was too scared of her face to notice her singing; she looked like the mother of the protagonist in 'Brazil' when having plastic surgery.
Penelope Cruz, on the other hand, is hot as ever; she also distracts from her singing, though in a good way. Judi Dench has possibly the worst song of the bunch, but manages to be uneventful rather than bad.
The only true saving grace comes from Marion Cotillard. Not only did she have the only good songs in the film, she IS a very good singer and is unbelievably charming. Her performance is brilliant, and you can't help feel sorry for both her character and for her (for being in this crap-fest).
But I guess it all makes sense in the end if you take it as Rob Marshall talking about himself. A pretentious director with no inspiration goes to make a movie, uses a very charming woman (he is not deserving of) and many others to find that inspiration, but in the end...
The screenplay is quite bad. The fault is partly due to the original musical's screenplay itself (the addition of those musics into '8½' were terrible); but most of the fault is due to the film's own screenplay, done by the hit-and-miss Michael Tolkin and the vastly overrated Anthony Minghella. The director, Rob Marshall (from the overrated 'Chicago'), tries to make too much of a show, not only prioritizing style over substance but in the end forcing too much the visual of the film.
Why did I have any reason to believe this could work?
Oh, yes. The cast. Eight big name actors in here; Rob Marshall always has to have a 'meaningful' cast in his musicals.
Daniel Day-Lewis, one of my favorite actors, is unbelievably bad in here. He is apathetic and charisma-less, never truly trying to be charming at all; a far call from Mastroianni, who played the same role to perfection in '8½'. His singing is more than just inconsistent; when you think he is beginning to do it right...
The actresses are even farther behind. Fergie might be a singer, but a very bad one; I'm glad she had such a short appearance. Doubly so for Kate Hudson: she manages to make an already bad song even more unbearable, both from her terrible singing and from the terrible scene she sings in. Nicole Kidman acts well, but she already showed in 'Moulin Rouge' that she is not a good singer, and her faces looks too plastic. Same for Sophia Loren; she was rather beautiful when younger, now she looks like an alien with her face like that. I was too scared of her face to notice her singing; she looked like the mother of the protagonist in 'Brazil' when having plastic surgery.
Penelope Cruz, on the other hand, is hot as ever; she also distracts from her singing, though in a good way. Judi Dench has possibly the worst song of the bunch, but manages to be uneventful rather than bad.
The only true saving grace comes from Marion Cotillard. Not only did she have the only good songs in the film, she IS a very good singer and is unbelievably charming. Her performance is brilliant, and you can't help feel sorry for both her character and for her (for being in this crap-fest).
But I guess it all makes sense in the end if you take it as Rob Marshall talking about himself. A pretentious director with no inspiration goes to make a movie, uses a very charming woman (he is not deserving of) and many others to find that inspiration, but in the end...