Re-watching Rob Marshall's NINE

[Marquise]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 3:57pm

via a screener given to me by a good friend in the industry. great screener too complete with a 5.1 dolby digital soundtrack which i wasn't expecting at all.

my opinion of it hasn't changed that much since seeing it in the cinema last december but i do have to say that i love, love, love penelope cruz' carla.

she is so funny, vivacious and ultimately heartbreaking in her portrayal. it's easy to see how she was the only member of this star-studded cast to score an oscar nomination...her call from the vatican is off the charts! she may not win the statuettte for this next month but the recognition from her peers speaks volumes.

[binau]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 4:04pm

She was good, but personally I thought Marion Cotillard had a more moving performance.

[Marquise]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 4:06pm

cotillard was fine as well but her luisa was so weak as compared to her stage counterpart. it was a fine performance but cruz' carla resonated with me more. cotillard was so much better in la vie en rose though and she won a much deserved oscar for it.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 4:10pm

I enjoyed the movie a lot more the second time around, perhaps because I had so many overblown expectations in my mind for the first viewing. I still find it enjoyable and special in its unique way, and the critics vicious attacks on it were unnecessary. I can tell you I much appreciated this movie than the conservative propaganda film THE BLIND SIDE.

Glad to hear positive comments on Penelope Cruz. I also loved, loved, loved her performance the second time I saw the movie (the day after Oscar nods were announced). She does wonders with "A Call from the Vatican," the way she sexualizes every single note she sings, and the way she moves and sells the number simply blew me away. I thought she was hilarious, I particularly loved the way she said "It was full of Germans!" Her dramatic scenes are very believable and she does a great job with an incredibly underwritten part.
Marion Cotillard was perfection as Luisa, and should have been nominated over Maggie Gyllenhaal or Helen Mirren (Since they were campaigning for lead). I imagine it was category confusion and lack of support for the film that kept her from getting the nod. Very unfair, she truly deserved it.

[Marquise]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 4:19pm

omg ray...you and i have the same appreciation for cruz' performance in this. i love th scene when she arrives at the station to meet guido and that line delivery of "it was full of germans!" my god i fell out laughing!!! and that little squeal of hers.

lord she was the best thing about this film. i can't stop replaying that scene at the pensione with guido.

"you think i'm one of your actresses", "luigi, he's studying latin he knows all the roman emperors..."


Updated On: 2/24/10 at 04:19 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 4:22pm

the scene where she walking down the street so distraught over her relationship with guido....just utterly defeated. i just wanted to reach out and give her a hug and tell her everything was going to be alright.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 11:26pm

cotillard was fine as well but her luisa was so weak as compared to her stage counterpart.

For me, Cotillard > Cruz is a big way. What Cotillard was able to do with what they gave her was brilliant. The faults of the screenplay and direction left Luisa with very little to do, but Cotillard was able to create dynamite on the screen. She should be the one invited to the Oscars, not Cruz. Shame on the campaigns for Cotillard for Lead. Cotillard may have been nominated alongside Cruz for all they know if they didn't screw that up.

Let's be real, I think they also threw Carla away too quickly. So Cruz did all she could to save the character. Still, "My Husband Makes Movies" is by far the best part of that movie, changed lyrics aside. "A Call From the Vatican" was good but felt routine and overly stagey for me.

And shouldn't it be "Cruz's" instead of "Cruz'"? The latter just looks funny to me.

~Steven

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 11:31pm

I thought the movie was a mess. The best parts were Cruz, the wife, and Fergie. The story just isn't all that interesting. I mean, are we suppose to care about this guy who is a big player and kind of crazy?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 11:33pm

I have a screener for it as well and watched it again the other day and found even more problems with it than I did the first time around. Just a hot mess of a movie that should have stayed in development hell until it died.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 11:38pm

Cruz was pretty much the only watchable thing in the movie, I thought. Well, her and Fergie.

I wanted to like Cotillard but her role was such a doormat, and that stupid "Take it All" number just wasn't earned, I though. And I thought that there was too much difference in her and Guido's ages. And with the way people here rake certain movie musical singers over the coals, I can't believe the pass she got with her breathy singing. She's a great actress, but I think she was miscast here.

[winston89]

Posted: 2/24/10 at 11:51pm

I saw it twice and I must say that while I did force myself to sit through the entire thing. Good God I wish I didn't. I found that it had overall bad character development and a maine character that I felt nothing for.

Ray, how the hell would you consider The Blind Side to be conservative propaganda anyways.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 12:09am

Sorry Winston, if you can't see how THE BLIND SIDE might as well be a 50s movie, I can't help you.
Phyllis, I disagree re Marion Cotillard, I loved her singing! I thought she was simply sublime in the part, and thought she added so much class to the piece. Her acting is sensational.
Can't wait for the Blu-Ray. Marquise, did you also enjoy Cruz in the opening number? I thought she managed to be sexy and hilarious even in that. She was pretty sensational in the movie. Nice to see that Rob Marshall earned Zeta-Jones her Oscar and now he got Cruz nominated the year right after she won. Can't wait to see what the two of them do together in the new PIRATES film.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 12:33am

"Marion Cotillard was perfection as Luisa, and should have been nominated over Maggie Gyllenhaal or Helen Mirren (Since they were campaigning for lead)."

Mirren was nominated in the lead category. The nominees for Supporting Actress are Cruz, Gyllenhaal, Vera Fermiga, Anna Kendrick, and Mo'nique.

BLIND SIDE was a MUCH more enjoyable and watchable movie than this tripe called NINE. I will never watch it again. The first time was torturous enough. And frankly, I don't think anyone in the cast deserved a nomination, including Cruz.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 12:44am

StageManager, I know that Mirren was nominated for lead. I meant that Cotillard should have been nominated in place of Gyllenhaal for Supporting or instead of Mirren for lead, depending on what the majority of the voters placed her in.
Sorry but I can't see anything enjoyable or interesting about THE BLIND SIDE. I wanted to walk out within the first 40 minutes. Any movies with lines such as "he's like an onion" that's not SHREK makes me want to run the opposite direction. Not to mention that the acting in NINE was in a complete different level than Tim McGraw and that poor kid who plays his biological son.
And frankly, I don't think anyone in the cast deserved a nomination, including Cruz.
At least you know how I feel about THE BLIND SIDE, but replace Cruz with Bullock.
Either way, I know I brought it up earlier, my bad. This thread is about NINE (and Cruz' marvelous Oscar-nominated performance...and it'll always remain an Oscar nominated performance regardless of who liked it or didn't) and it should stay that way.

Updated On: 2/25/10 at 12:44 AM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 12:54am

Unless there's a huge upset, it's Mo'Nique all the way. Personally, I'd be happy if she, Cruz or Kendrick got it.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 1:16am

"Not to mention that the acting in NINE was in a complete different level than Tim McGraw and that poor kid who plays his biological son."

Yeah... well... you have a big behind!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 1:21am

I'm watching the Blind Side this weekend, so I'll tell you which of you bitches is right once I'm done.

[winston89]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 1:23am

Ray, I am sorry but I do find it to be horribly wrong that you're considering the blind side to be a fifties movie. More that you think that there is some political agenda behind it. If that is the case then you are reading WAY to much into the story and I find that to be kind of sad. Considering the kind of film that it is.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 1:28am

I'm as liberal as they come, and I found THE BLIND SIDE to be perfectly fine.

It's telling the story of that family, and they happen to be very conservative. The movie has no agenda.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 1:30am

Finally saw it. The film was indeed the hot mess I read it to be in both reviews by nearly every professional critic and BWW. Penelope literally saved the film for me, although I do agree cutting "Simple" was a mistake. Marion made the best out of her role but I would not go as far to say she should have gotten a nomination.

While The Blind Side is really not worthy of its Best Picture nomination it is still an enjoyable film. As somebody who knew the story long before the film was made, yes, it took some liberties that basically made Oher into something of an idiot savant regarding the Xs and Os in football but not so much in the classroom. I think that was used mostly as a device to audiences unfamiliar with the sport. Conservative propaganda? The movie is anything you can interpret it to be, like all films, some people already had opinions on the film before they saw it and just looked for things in the film that fit their prejudices. I initially had them seeing the trailer thinking Lifetime movie but somehow I enjoyed the film and Bullock's performance.

Pitiful year for the leading actresses category. I love Meryl, I just do not see how her performance is more Oscar-worthy than Sandra's performance. Somebody declared TBS to be Bullock's Erin Brockovich and I cannot complain if she wins because there is no Ellen Burnstyn's Requiem For A Dream nominated. Meryl's performance was fun and fluffy but I shudder to think after so many iconic roles she would win again for Julie & Julia, weak year in competition or not. Give the award to the newcomers (Mulligan or Sidibe), I would not mind.

As much as Harvey Weinstein still has influence in Hollywood despite no real meaty projects since his Mirimax days (with exception to his loyalist Tarantino), there was no way he would vouch for Nine once the reviews came in. The movie was a critical and financial flop. He has stuck with Inglorious Basterds as his meal ticket. He did something similar when his two-backed films Chicago and Gangs of New York were out in the same year. Gangs was interminably long, expensive, took forever to make, and only the most ardent Scorsese fans in critics circles raved about the film. Oscar-time, Gangs gets completely shut out while Chicago takes Best Picture. Harvey did not even bother to get Daniel Day-Lewis' performance of Bill the Butcher a statue.

Updated On: 2/25/10 at 01:30 AM

[allofmylife]

Posted: 2/25/10 at 2:31am

My screener has been sitting in the DVD bay of the laptop for several weeks now. I stopped at about the midway point. Ouch.

And yet... there are some very nice moments in the film. It's not the mess some people are saying. It's more like it's a big WHY?There are so many better shows to be made into movies. I suppose the main why is all the female roles. They thought the casting of all those names would draw seats into the theater.

Nope.

Hairspray and Dreamgirls had stories audiences could get caught up in. This film had an indecisive creep with talent. That was the male role in Dreamgirls. Audiences were rooting for the woman.

However, I did enjoy the opening press conference. Nice dialogue.

And as I've said before, the POSTER for "Nine" is inspired.