Nine

New review from The Movie Snob

Nine (C). I’m totally unfamiliar with the source material for this new musical by Chicago director Rob Marshall. I didn’t even know there was a Broadway musical called Nine, and shamefully I have never seen Fellini’s 8 ½. Anyway, Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) stars as Guido Contini, a beloved film director who is struggling to develop a script and start filming his new movie, “Italia.” As he struggles, he meditates on the various women in his life (his mother, his wife, his mistress, his frequent star, etc.), and the meditations are illustrated by musical numbers. Contini is a pitiful figure, to me, and the musical numbers range from tolerable to over-the-top histrionic. Nicole Kidman (Invasion) is lovely as ever as Contini's movie star/muse, but her song was pretty forgettable. Not great on the whole.