Nine (2009)

Nine has a fantastic cast - Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Penélope Cruz, Kate Hudson, and, erm, Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas - and so I looked forward to it with high expectations. It's also directed by Chicago's Rob Marshall, which certainly shows in the manner in which the movie's musical numbers are staged. 

I'm happy to say that the performances from the Oscars-bothering cast (and Fergie, who has a Grammy at least) are first class, and the songs are inventively filmed and delivered with gusto, so it's a shame to report that the film as a whole isn't quite the sum of its parts. Although Day-Lewis is impeccable as an Italian movie director suffering a breakdown, I didn't really care about his predicament. Well, actually not caring is being too strong. I liked the character of Guido, it's just that the plot is really so slight, and the narrative feels too interrupted by the songs that by the time the end credits rolled I felt neither elated nor let down. It's a solid film, but not the all singing and dancing successor to Chicago that I was expecting or hoped for. 

Each actress delivered great vocal performances, and mostly greatly sexy physical routines to go with them, yes, even Dame Judi who's never looked so glam. Penélope Cruz's song had such an erotic routine I didn't know where to look - she was forever spreading her legs! Kidman was very good, although she's not in the film a great deal. Sophia Loren looked as if someone has dug her up recently, which is apt as her character is Guido's dead mother. I'm being unkind, but then so was much of Loren's lighting...

The best performances, and most memorable songs, came from Kate Hudson (who knew she could sing so well?) and a tour-de-force rendition of Be Italian from Fergie from the B.E.P. herself. Much of the humour in the movie came from Cruz's mistress, and the heart was supplied by Cotillard as Guido's neglected wife. 

While the movie was enjoyable enough, it didn't leave me tapping my feet often enough, or wanting to get to my feet and applaud at the end as Chicago and Hairspray did before it.