..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

15 Weeks To Go
NineeniN

There is a lot of hit and run this time of year. You see a movie. You think about a movie. You write about a movie. And then, you defend what you thought and wrote about that movie.

A few years ago, I did a series of pieces arguing for and against some of the movies that were in awards contention. It was a great exercise. Because for every yin, there really is a yang. I may be right… but there is someone out there – perhaps a lot of someones… perhaps a majority of someones – who feel quite differently.

So… after writing a review that cut into the many troubles with Nine, how can I still feel so sure that the film will be nominated for Best Picture?

Well, still slicing, the name of the film is one away from an easy answer… Ten.

But getting past that, there is a lot of talent at work on this movie. Even the people who don’t love the film seem to agree that Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard are quite loveable in this film as The Whore and The Madonna. Both actors seem to be a step more relaxed on screen, trying less hard, more mature. And in both cases, they have more developed characters than any of the other women in the film.

The natural sensuality of Penelope Cruz is something that filmmakers are drawn to like moths to a flame. And the less objectified the roles she is offered become, the stronger she gets. Here, she gets to slink and sing. She does terrifically. The design of the number literally boxes her in to a space and the images fight your eyes a bit, as where our eyes go is constrained… and speaking for the heterosexual men in the room, your eyes want to be free to feast.

It’s a funny thing. We recently did a DP/30 with Ms. Cruz for Broken Embraces. And we talked a bit about her journey on Nine. She lit up talking about the joy of the work on the movie and the joy of working with everyone on the movie, all putting forth their very best effort, learning new things, risking, daring. She was just lovely about it.

And talking with her about her being a little shy, being a little insecure, and being more than a little normal, make ogling her on screen something different. But then again, the natural objectification of the big screen somehow turns her into something other than Penelope… on screen, she is PENELOPE.

In that real life moment – albeit showbiz real life and one step into artifice by the very nature of it – if she dropped something and bent over to pick it up, I would be deeply embarrassed to be caught checking out her backside. In the dark room, watching her in her frilly underwear in Nine, I am not only invited to check it out, the film insists that I do… and goes a step further as the camera watches her drag her hands across her (covered) pubic mound.

But I digress…

What is interesting to me about Cruz’ performance in Nine is that it is the non-musical bits of her performance that stick with me the most. Her comic timing is superior. And even her walk, as she tries to sneak into Guido’s public life, is charmingly funny.

Marion Cotillard delivers a very different performance. She is the loving, knowing, and long-suffering wife of The Great Man. Her ability to let us into her sadness with just her eyes is remarkable. Even as she navigates a complex idea like being somewhere she knows is likely to make her unhappy but hoping she will be pleasantly surprised after sacrificing for her man with only a few words and a few glances in a room full of people, she gets it across.

And then, in her two singing numbers, she advances the story. The second number, "Take It All," written for the film, is the killer… her Leslie Gore turn… in which she plays the role that she sees her husband drawn to while screaming at him in her pain, essentially.

It’s in a silent moment, for her, that she reminds Guido what he wanted to be with her. She is just crossing the street with someone else, happy, confident, relaxed. A lovely bit. Cotillard really got all one could get out of a small role.

Of course, the big machine of nine is a piece of construction by Rob Marshall. And he shows, as he has before, particularly in the Tony Bennett TV special, that he is skilled at constructing beautiful little boxes of song and dance. I sometimes wonder whether his tendency to want to use the device of The Stage to return to with each number is because he knows that he has a bit of choreographic ADD, wanting to do so many different things from number to number. If you want to do a chorus line of dancing whores and a Dean Martin Show dance number with a blonde swinging her hair at the center in the same movie, how do you attach them without some kind of infrastructure that connects them effortlessly?

And indeed, the movie’s musical numbers often have a lot of size and style. Be Italian, the whore-us line number, segues from a Herb Ritts scene on a beach into a gypsy soft shoe chorus with sand on the ground, tambourines flying, and fleshy parts filling every frame.

For Sophia Loren’s song, an "Every Breath You Take" candlelight vigil.

For Follies Bergere, a long line of leggy lasses in spangle and g-strings with Dame Judi in the middle (not in a g-string… that we know of), donnig her best French accent and charm.

And Daniel Day-Lewis’ big number is a solo walking tour of the infrastructure of his massive in-process movie set.

Penelope, in her interview, hit on much of what there is to like about this film… which is also what we are seeing in a lot of the “behind the scenes” style ads for the film. These women are having a ball. You can feel their pleasure in stretching for this work. You just know they had a great time on that set.

We live in an era in which people go to the movies expecting moments. They seem happy when they can take some of them away from the theater, chattering about them into the night and checking them out again when the DVD or cable/satellite moment comes. And Nine gives you moments.

Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?

Last Week's Charts (new charts on Thursday, 12/10)
Best Picture
Actor | Supporting Actor
Actress | Supporting Actress

December 6, 2009
- by David Poland

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Previous Columns
November 19, 2009
November 12, 2009
October 30, 2009
September 30, 2009
July 1, 2009

2009 Oscars | 2008 Oscars | 2007 Oscars | 2006 Oscars | 2005 Oscars

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