The movie adaptation of "Nine" (2009) - why? — Page 2

"Toni is perfect if they ever make that NEXT TO NORMAL movie they talked about. "

When I first heard Kitt & Yorkey were writing If/Then for Idina, I naturally assumed it would later lead to her starring in the film of Next to Normal. But yes, Toni would be perfection.

Please direct the film-version of Follies, Sally. I love everything you just said.

And I know you don't want Rob Marshall, but I actually feel like he could do a good job with Follies (if he were to do what you said and not update it).

"Your subject title made me laugh, and I agree with you that the movie version of Nine is not very good (I hated it when I first saw it, but saw it again in 2011 and thought it was merely mediocre and a missed opportunity)."

My parents took me to see it in the theater. I agreed with your second take, that it was merely mediocre and a missed opportunity but it's definitely one of the few times I can remember being that disappointed in a movie I paid to see. I Am Love will always be the worst though.

I don't think the movie is a complete waste. There are songs that I like. It's just that it feels like they work as out of context music videos and not sequences that support a larger story.

"Meryl can carry a tune. She can't carry a musical."

Agreed. I don't want to bring back dubbing though. I want them to just cast the best people for the job regardless of star power. It's not going to happen but I'd settle for just casting legitimate Broadway talent in a role or two so they at least have a shot at breaking out and getting a fan base among mainstream audiences.

"Why is Toni Colette not in any movie musicals?"

Does Connie and Carla count? If so, that might be your answer.

While I feel that the stage adaptation of NINE is far superior to the movie, I don't hate the latter quite as much as most do. My biggest problems with it were the casting of Daniel Day-Lewis, a screenplay that was much weaker than Kopit's book, and that they cut so much of the incredible score. Ugh!

That said, I believe the film does have flashes of brilliance that could have made for a pretty extraordinary Hollywood musical if they'd been executed consistently...

• Penelope Cruz was a perfect Carla- and I'm saying that as someone who is very picky with that role. Her "Vatican" may not have been as vocally exhilarating as others, but I thought the number as a whole really worked.
• "Be Italian" was terrific and I wish they would've used Fergie more as Sarraghina.
• Judi Dench was almost there as La Fleur, but part of me really wishes they could have gotten Chita to reprise her Tony-nominated performance.
• On that note, Antonio Banderas IS a film "name," so why didn't they just use him for Guido...?
• Nicole Kidman and Kate Hudson were grossly miscast, although "Cinema Italiano" is a guilty pleasure song of mine for dancing.

I'd love to see a Follies movie shot like a Fosse film, but that would probably be too weird for producers. Which sucks, because his style's atmospheric use of emotional and/or ironical editing suits the show perfectly, particularly its fragmented nature. I mean, he's also dead but there's plenty of interesting filmmakers working today who could pull off that tricky surreal/grounded tone.

I saw the original 1982 production of "Nine" twice. My all-time favorite musical ever. I ran out to see the film version on the Christmas Day it opened. I had never been so disappointed in an adaptation. That being said, I do have the Blu-Ray. Maybe I'll give it a second chance.

Preface: I haven't seen the show on stage, though I know the original cast recording well. It's a show I've always been fine with, but I don't really think about it a lot.

The movie is astonishingly bad, just as a piece of storytelling. Scenes keep happening, and keep happening, and I. DO. NOT. CARE. THE DRAMATIC TENSION IS [cen] NONEXISTENT.

And I think that's a big part of what makes the movie so unlikable: scenes keep happening, and musical numbers show up out of nowhere (as if they just picked them randomly from the show), and everything keeps piling up, AND THE MOVIE THINKS IT'S SAYING SO MUCH, AND IT'S SAYING NOTHING.

It's very clear that Rob Marshall had no idea how to adapt the show to screen... so he torched it. Just to get a giant pile of... NOTHING.

Updated On: 8/23/15 at 10:24 PM

Fellini's 8 1/2- THAT is why- it's every film director's wet dream- their personal wet dream so an opportunity to redo it and make it more "theirs" too too tempting. Egos not violin.

I have always loved NINE as a musical...I remember seeing the 2003 revival and really liking it, but it was when I discovered the 1982 OBC Cast Recording that I really truly fell in love with the show.

I know it gets a lot of flak for beating Dreamgirls, which is a strong show in its own right, but Nine had more of an effect on me as a whole.

As for the movie, it was a complete misfire in nearly every respect. It contained one of Daniel Day Lewis' weakest performances and so many people were just miscast or bland. For me, the highlight was Marion Cotillard, who should have received the Supporting Actress nomination over Penelope Cruz. And as many have stated, the cutting of several songs and the new cobbled together script just bogged it down tremendously.

The film's rampant miscasting is a matter of public record -- only Marion Cotillard rises above the sewage. For me the film's most grotesque miscalculation was the utter GLOOMINESS of the proceedings -- everybody's suffering all over the place is amped to such a level that the movie just winds up being a colossal downer, rather than the joyful comedy that Fellini's original film is.

^^^ Guido is also likable -- he's just plain likable, even as his less admirable qualities are spilled all over the screen. I always suspected that the late unlamented Anthony Minghella had a big hand in the gloomification of the script. Day-Lewis doesn't help matters -- he's so busy being so very tortured it's hard to work up any sympathy or interest in the guy, he's got none, and I mean NONE, of the charm that animated Mastroianni's Guido in Fellini's film and Raul Julia's Guido in the original Broadway cast, and thus Day-Lewis' Guido's final breakdown, while skillfully peformed, isn't even remotely moving because, well, who cares. It takes him a long time to realize what has been eminently clear to even the dimmest movie-goer: the guy's an asshole.

Updated On: 8/24/15 at 11:55 AM