Nine
(2009/Sony DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C-
There is
a reason the Musical died decades ago and that is because by the 1950s, Hollywood did just about
everything to keep it alive and occasionally, a big hit had them rush out and
make a dozen more that bombed. Music
Videos killed the genre more, but the genre slowly returned. The only thing is, you must reinvent the
whole thing every time you set out to do another one. Among the many mistakes Rob Marshall made
with Nine (2009) is he recycled the
style of his hit version of Chicago and that has absolutely nothing to do with
Federico Fellini, Marcello Mastroianni, Italian Neo-Realism or Italy.
Then
comes the casting, getting stars for commercial reasons when they needed to get
more high profile stars that fit like Sophia Loren. Aside from her, if you can pronounce the
actors name (unless you speak and read Italian well), their presence is
questionable. Daniel Day-Lewis is a fine
actor, but I never begun to buy him as either Fellini or Mastroianni, Marion
Cotillard is not bad, but Nicole Kidman is too similar here to her work in the
overrated Moulin Rouge to work, Judi Dench just fits, Kate Hudson tries with
some results, Stacy Ferguson (aka Fergie) is out of her element, Penelope Cruz
is too much in the Almodovar mode and combined do not create a big bang of
musical chemistry that was needed.
Anthony
Minghella passed away before he could see this script through, so that likely
hurt, but he gets credit for it with Michael Tolkin, whose Changing Lanes script (2002) was not that bad despite a
questionable ending. What may have
seemed respectful reference to Fellini et al on stage needed to go deeper here,
but does not and the film inadvertently demeans the life, loves and filmmaking
of the man by making it shallow, flat and the spectacle here never equals any
Fellini film when all it needed to do was look as good as one of them.
Marshall last took over Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005) from
Spielberg and could not make that work either, but his difficulties here are
much worse. Maybe he is running out of
things to say, do or show, but he had better recover soon or Chicago
will look like a singular fluke.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is a mix of color and black and white
film that does not always mix well, especially since the commercial black and
white does not even begin to try to look like Fellini’s monochrome classics
like La Dolce Vita (1960),
referenced often here. Director of
Photography Dion Beebe has been in a rut lately and for all his talent, seems
bored here. This transfer does not help
by being too soft with poor Video Black and detail, though the Blu-ray might
look better, but cannot change problematic aesthetic decisions. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is a little better,
but also disappoints with some mixing issues and soundfield limits, though the
singing is recorded well enough. Extras
include eight featurettes, three Music Videos (if you can call them that) and a
feature length audio commentary by Marshall and Producer John Deluca.
- Nicholas Sheffo
