The history behind the new Rob Marshall musical Nine is a full one.  It’s based on a 1982 stage musical which was itself an adaptation of an Italian play by Mario Fratti that was inspired by the Frederico Fellini film 8 ½.  Despite multiple viewings, 8 ½, a movie many film aficionados consider one of the greatest ever made, has never really worked for me.  The new musical, however, is a lot of fun to watch, if only to see some of our most talented female actresses strut their stuff while flexing their golden pipes.

The award-winning female cast plays the various women in the lives of famous Italian film director Guido Contini, who is struggling to get his latest film off the ground.  He’s got a partially built set and he’s got his costumes, but what he doesn’t have is a script.

Meanwhile, he’s getting pulled in all directions by his aggressive producer, he’s getting ripped in the media for his last few flops, and he’s struggling to balance his need for his wife and the neediness of his mistress.

Like he did with Chicago, Marshall presents the musical numbers in Nine as if they were taking place in Guido’s head.  This is consistent with the source material as the fantasies played a large part in the original 8 ½.  An interesting technique used in the film is that all of the musical numbers take place on the same partially built set on the sound stage.  Nevertheless, each number feels unique from the others.

Although much of the early attention has been paid to Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance as Guido, he spends a good deal of the film as an observer, watching the film’s starlets take over.  With the exception of Marion Cotillard, who gets an encore number as Guido’s underappreciated wife, each actress gets one big number.  This includes Penelope Cruz as Guido’s mistress, Judi Dench as his costume designer/confidant, Kate Hudson as a journalist, Fergie as prostitute from his youth, Nicole Kidman as his star/muse, and Sofia Loren as his deceased mother.

All of the numbers are fun to watch, but there are a few that stand out for me above the rest.  Cruz is all kinds of sexy as she belts out “A Call from the Vatican,” and Hudson brings a lot of energy to “Cinema Italiano.”  In what felt like a tribute to Rita Hayworth’s clothed striptease performance of “Put the Blame on Mame” in Gilda, Cotillard burns up the screen in her second number, “Take it All.”  Finally, the song that has been featured most in the trailers and continues to be stuck in my head as I write this is “Be Italian,” a number which makes great use of sand and is performed wonderfully by songstress Fergie of Black Eyed Peas fame.

Day-Lewis does get his own number and it works well, but his work is mostly done in between the musical interludes.  He is very good as the tortured artist, and of all his relationships I most enjoyed his connection with Dench’s costume designer, who acts somewhat as his psychiatrist and is good at bringing him back down to earth.

Although I did not find the film nearly as enjoyable as Chicago, I was quite entertained. In addition to the music, the cinematography and art direction are fantastic.  This is a very beautiful film to watch and I’m not just referring to the leading ladies.

Nine is rated PG-13 for “sexual content and smoking.”  Some of the musical numbers are very risqué in their sexuality.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Nine.