In Nine, Chicago director Rob Marshall’s highly anticipated new film, loosely based on Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, the legendary Daniel Day-Lewis plays the womanising anti-hero Guido Contini. Guido is a highly respected filmmaker whose latest offering is at crisis-point for want of a script, and more importantly, the inspiration to write one.
The opening scenes find him on a covert trip to the seaside, hoping to get the creative juices flowing. This is the cue for the various women in Guido’s life – his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his muse (Nicole Kidman), his confidante (Judi Dench) and so on – to each offer their own dramatic musical number, serving to illuminate Guido’s journey from precocious boy to a conflicted genius who’s quickly losing his grip on reality.
Cotillard again proves completely mesmerising, stealing the film with two outstanding musical pieces – ‘My Husband Makes Movies’ and ‘Take It All’ – whilst Cruz is also Oscar-worthy for her role as Guido’s sexy, suicidal mistress. As for Day-Lewis, he plays his part with an intelligent, almost ironic self awareness. It’s a role that doesn’t stretch him in every direction, but it never really needs to. The film is at once quirkily cool and captivating, a delirious escape into song and dance that will see you return to reality eventually with a discordant crash.
In cinemas now
