Nine (2009)
I wasn’t a huge fan of 8 ½, and while Nine isn’t a movie I’ll want to watch over and over again, I’m still glad I rented it. It’s visually beautiful, thanks to masterful director Rob Marshall, and very fun to see different actresses singing and dancing when you didn’t know they could. Still, the protagonist of the film is too egocentric and absorbed in his own emotional problems to be likable, so it’s not very compelling to find out what happens to him. And let’s face it, we’re all waiting on the edge of our seats to see Sophia Loren. Not to see Daniel Day-Lewis, who isn’t even Italian! Why couldn’t they cast someone with Italian roots to star in the musical adaptation of the famous Italian film?
They make us wait an awfully long time before Miss Loren makes her grand entrance, and along the way they try to entertain us with Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Penélope Cruz, and Fergie. It’s an endless debate as to whether Penélope’s burlesque number or Fergie’s belting “Be Italian” beach scene is the showstopper; you’ll have to watch both to make up your mind.
I consider it shameful that a movie only famous for its Italian heritage features actors from Spain, Australia, America, France, and England. The only lead in this movie with any Italian in her is Sophia Loren! I understand that everyone wants to be in a musical. The genre is making a comeback, much to my delight. But someone should have put his foot down and insisted on using actors and actresses with the correct nationality. Nicolas Cage, Joe Pantoliano, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro, Liza Minnelli, Jennifer Esposito, Tea Leoni, Maria Bello, Mira Sorvino, Marisa Tomei, Isabella Rossellini, Talia Shire – just to name a few. And even if those abovementioned actors and actresses couldn’t sing, they’d fit right in with this movie. Only one song requires a good voice, and instead of Fergie, Lady Gaga could have made an impressionable film debut belting out “Be Italian.”
But if you like the modern musical comeback, chances are you also like Rob Marshall. Watching one of his movies is like going to an art museum, and it almost makes up for having the wrong cast in front of the camera. Go ahead and rent this one, but take it from a paisan: don’t expect to be swept up in the Italian culture.
More Judi Dench movies here!
They make us wait an awfully long time before Miss Loren makes her grand entrance, and along the way they try to entertain us with Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Penélope Cruz, and Fergie. It’s an endless debate as to whether Penélope’s burlesque number or Fergie’s belting “Be Italian” beach scene is the showstopper; you’ll have to watch both to make up your mind.
I consider it shameful that a movie only famous for its Italian heritage features actors from Spain, Australia, America, France, and England. The only lead in this movie with any Italian in her is Sophia Loren! I understand that everyone wants to be in a musical. The genre is making a comeback, much to my delight. But someone should have put his foot down and insisted on using actors and actresses with the correct nationality. Nicolas Cage, Joe Pantoliano, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro, Liza Minnelli, Jennifer Esposito, Tea Leoni, Maria Bello, Mira Sorvino, Marisa Tomei, Isabella Rossellini, Talia Shire – just to name a few. And even if those abovementioned actors and actresses couldn’t sing, they’d fit right in with this movie. Only one song requires a good voice, and instead of Fergie, Lady Gaga could have made an impressionable film debut belting out “Be Italian.”
But if you like the modern musical comeback, chances are you also like Rob Marshall. Watching one of his movies is like going to an art museum, and it almost makes up for having the wrong cast in front of the camera. Go ahead and rent this one, but take it from a paisan: don’t expect to be swept up in the Italian culture.
More Judi Dench movies here!