by Holly Huffstutler

Created on: January 19, 2010

Can a movie objectify women when those women also own the movie? Yes. And no. Rob Marshall’s film adaptation of the Tony Award winning musical (itself an adaptation of Fellini’s “8 ½”) is on the surface a film about a self involved philandering filmmaker trying to come up with a story to tell on film while trapped under crippling self doubt. But in actuality the film is about the women who populate his life, and the audience finding out that they are all so much more than the lust worthy archetypes he sees them as.

To run down the players, Daniel Day Lewis plays Guido Contini, the director. Marion Cotillard plays his neglected wife who has put aside her own acting career to be his full time sounding board, Penelope Cruz plays his mistress, Sophia Loren plays the memory of his dead mother, Kate Hudson plays a would be fling—a Vogue writer who worships him and his films for their style, Nicole Kidman plays his long time muse, Judi Dench plays the mentor/surrogate mom who costumes all his movies,  and Black Eyed Peas frontwoman Fergie plays the prostitute who taught his prepubescent self that women and sex could prove to be something really awesome.

Day Lewis is a compelling performer, one that usually grabs the camera and dares you to look at anyone but him. In “Nine,” he somehow manages to make a spoiled man-child like Contini sympathetic and deep, while letting the real spotlight go to the unfolding stories of the fabulous women around him.

I read a review tagline that described the film as “karaoke night at Victoria’s Secret,” and if you watched any 15 minutes of it on mute that would be correct. The movie overflows with talented beautiful stars singing as they writhe around in lingerie. But the heft of the film comes from the way the decadent sexiness of those scenes gets subverted by what the lyrics of those songs reveal about these women. The best example of this is Cottilard’s sexy striptease that actually means “You’re a infantile cheating parasite, and I’m leaving you”     

The one worrisome quirk revealed by Nine is the way Marshall presented all the musical numbers. In “Chicago” rather than have his characters break into song, as per standard musical theatre practice, Marshall set up the songs in the real world and then flashed to an imaginary theatre where his characters’ theatrical alter egos performed “Mister Cellophane” or “Cell Block Tango” to an imaginary audience.

Well, guess what, he did the exact same thing in Nine! The Onyx nightclub of “Chicago” has been replaced by the half built set of the film Contini is desperately trying to dream up. It makes me wonder why a musical theatre director doesn’t think the audience for movie musicals will accept the sight of a character breaking into song mid-conversation.   

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