#1
Posted: 12/8/09 at 6:58am
I've finally seen the film. Visually it's very beautiful to look at and I was swept away by the location photography, but anyone can see that from the many beautiful production stills and scenes that are featured in the trailers, so that factor really wasn't that much of a surprise.
Marshall's gimmick of using the main's character's imagination, thoughts, dreams as an excuse for the musical numbers was already used in his 2002 film version of CHICAGO but in this film it just didn't work for me. So many of the songs just "got in the way". It's the first musical that I've seen where I just sat there waiting for the song to be over so the rest of the film could just move along.
All the numbers on a soundstage and they all come off as static. Dare I say I would have enjoyed the movie more as a straight dramatic film without all of the singing and dancing? So much of it was "throwaway" that if any one of the numbers would have been cut they would not have been missed.
The performances were uniformly good. Daniel Day Lewis surprised me as Guido. I had my doubts but he's such a chameleon. He totally immersed himself in the character. He's a lot darker as originally written but I have to say he's a shoo in for another Oscar nomination.
Judi Dench is delightful as his costume designer/confidante Lili LeFleur although I could have done without her Folies Bergere number. It was just, well, in my opinion, pointless.
Marion Cotillard broke my heart as Luisa Contini. I'm totally in love with this woman. She gives the best performance out of all the women and her performance of the new song, "Take It All" for me was one of the film's highlights. She deserves a nomination as well.
Kate Hudson as Stephanie. I'm on the fence on this one guys. I like Hudson a lot and her one musical number "Cinema Italiano" is one of my favorite tracks on the soundtrack but honestly it could have been lifted off from the film and not have been missed. It's a good song and it's a pretty dazzling number visually but it doesn't add or enhance anything to the film. It's just *there*.... Her character is relatively minor as well so I still don't *get* how her character holds such an important significance in Guido's life as opposed to say, his mother, Carla or Luisa.
Penelope Cruz....Is there anything that this woman CAN'T do. She was so much fun to watch in this role. She was a comic highlight. She brought a smile to my face every time she came on screen. She's a total "sexpot" in this movie and her A CALL FROM THE VATICAN is a showstopper. She totally nailed it.
Which brings me to....Nicole Kidman. Thankfully she wasn't in the film very much. I felt she was completely miscast in this. Oh sure she's beautiful but to me she isn't Claudia. She doesn't look like any famous Italian actress I've ever seen. She doesn't look Italian PERIOD. I also noticed they've changed her name to Jenssen or it it Jansen? To me Claudia is supposed to be a dark Italian beauty, one who represents the total vision of such famous Italian actresses like Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida or Claudia Cardinale, who played the part in Fellini's original 8 1/2. Nicole Kidman doesn't embody any of these qualities, and after finally seeing and hearing her rendition of UNUSUAL WAY I dislike it even more. What's even more laughable is that Kidman hangs on for dear life to keep her Italian accent consistent and does a very poor job and once she opens her mouth to sing the accent is totally gone! Total misfire.
Sophia Loren as Guido's mother was joy to watch in every scene she was in. It was a privilege to see her for the first time on a movie theater screen. She's so beautiful and I loved her GUARDA LA LUNA.
Fergie as Saraghina in her one big number BE ITALIAN may very well be the film's SHOWSTOPPER. She was simply incredible.
Overall I feel the film was fine but as a musical film it fails in that, at least for me the songs got in the way of the story. I would have preferred to see this done as a straight dramatic film.
Day Lewis, Cotillard, Dench, Cruz, Loren and Fergie were the standouts for me.
I loved, loved, loved the musical underscoring for the picture and I loved the FINALE.
I totally *got* how in the OVERTURE all of the people in Guido's life are dressed in shades of black and in the FINALE they are all in white. Visually it said a lot and Marshall has a great eye for these kinds of details.
In my honest opinion it's not up there with CHICAGO or DREAMGIRLS but it's not a total miss, I will definitely buy it once it comes to out on blu ray but it's not a masterpiece either.
I wouldn't deter anyone from seeing it though.
Marshall's gimmick of using the main's character's imagination, thoughts, dreams as an excuse for the musical numbers was already used in his 2002 film version of CHICAGO but in this film it just didn't work for me. So many of the songs just "got in the way". It's the first musical that I've seen where I just sat there waiting for the song to be over so the rest of the film could just move along.
All the numbers on a soundstage and they all come off as static. Dare I say I would have enjoyed the movie more as a straight dramatic film without all of the singing and dancing? So much of it was "throwaway" that if any one of the numbers would have been cut they would not have been missed.
The performances were uniformly good. Daniel Day Lewis surprised me as Guido. I had my doubts but he's such a chameleon. He totally immersed himself in the character. He's a lot darker as originally written but I have to say he's a shoo in for another Oscar nomination.
Judi Dench is delightful as his costume designer/confidante Lili LeFleur although I could have done without her Folies Bergere number. It was just, well, in my opinion, pointless.
Marion Cotillard broke my heart as Luisa Contini. I'm totally in love with this woman. She gives the best performance out of all the women and her performance of the new song, "Take It All" for me was one of the film's highlights. She deserves a nomination as well.
Kate Hudson as Stephanie. I'm on the fence on this one guys. I like Hudson a lot and her one musical number "Cinema Italiano" is one of my favorite tracks on the soundtrack but honestly it could have been lifted off from the film and not have been missed. It's a good song and it's a pretty dazzling number visually but it doesn't add or enhance anything to the film. It's just *there*.... Her character is relatively minor as well so I still don't *get* how her character holds such an important significance in Guido's life as opposed to say, his mother, Carla or Luisa.
Penelope Cruz....Is there anything that this woman CAN'T do. She was so much fun to watch in this role. She was a comic highlight. She brought a smile to my face every time she came on screen. She's a total "sexpot" in this movie and her A CALL FROM THE VATICAN is a showstopper. She totally nailed it.
Which brings me to....Nicole Kidman. Thankfully she wasn't in the film very much. I felt she was completely miscast in this. Oh sure she's beautiful but to me she isn't Claudia. She doesn't look like any famous Italian actress I've ever seen. She doesn't look Italian PERIOD. I also noticed they've changed her name to Jenssen or it it Jansen? To me Claudia is supposed to be a dark Italian beauty, one who represents the total vision of such famous Italian actresses like Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida or Claudia Cardinale, who played the part in Fellini's original 8 1/2. Nicole Kidman doesn't embody any of these qualities, and after finally seeing and hearing her rendition of UNUSUAL WAY I dislike it even more. What's even more laughable is that Kidman hangs on for dear life to keep her Italian accent consistent and does a very poor job and once she opens her mouth to sing the accent is totally gone! Total misfire.
Sophia Loren as Guido's mother was joy to watch in every scene she was in. It was a privilege to see her for the first time on a movie theater screen. She's so beautiful and I loved her GUARDA LA LUNA.
Fergie as Saraghina in her one big number BE ITALIAN may very well be the film's SHOWSTOPPER. She was simply incredible.
Overall I feel the film was fine but as a musical film it fails in that, at least for me the songs got in the way of the story. I would have preferred to see this done as a straight dramatic film.
Day Lewis, Cotillard, Dench, Cruz, Loren and Fergie were the standouts for me.
I loved, loved, loved the musical underscoring for the picture and I loved the FINALE.
I totally *got* how in the OVERTURE all of the people in Guido's life are dressed in shades of black and in the FINALE they are all in white. Visually it said a lot and Marshall has a great eye for these kinds of details.
In my honest opinion it's not up there with CHICAGO or DREAMGIRLS but it's not a total miss, I will definitely buy it once it comes to out on blu ray but it's not a masterpiece either.
I wouldn't deter anyone from seeing it though.
Updated On: 12/8/09 at 06:58 AM
