What Went Wrong: Nine
By Shalimar Sahota
April 28, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
With Rob Marshall directing another musical, everyone was expecting the next Chicago. Then there was the roster of Academy Award winning talent involved - Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Jude Dench, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren. “You’ll see a lot of nominations,” said producer Harvey Weinstein. “We won the Oscar for Chicago. Hopefully we’ll get in the arena again.” Unfortunately, the film garnered only four Oscar nominations and five Golden Globe nominations, which ended up looking like undeserved pity just to make up the numbers. It won none, and was not a box office hit, either.
Based on an award winning Broadway musical, itself loosely based on Fellini’s 8 1/2, Nine was funded by Relativity Media and The Weinstein Company. It was adapted for the screen by Michael Tolkin, known for scripting The Player. “Michael's unique understanding of show business and the creative process will help create a clever and sexy film,” said Weinstein. Anthony Minghella did a rewrite on Tolkin’s script before he passed away. Marshall, with his background in theatre and as a choreographer, directed Chicago to a best picture Oscar, so it seemed only fitting to have him take charge. I’ll admit that I’ve not seen the original musical, but I couldn’t help but feel that the film plays like a cut down version of it.
Nine had a production budget of $80 million. The Weinstein Company distributed the film in the US, starting with a limited release on four screens on December 18, 2009 (it was originally set to open for Thanksgiving on November 25th). The film earned a good $257,000. The following weekend, it opened wide (at a still relatively low 1,412 locations). It charted at #8 with $5.4 million. Making just $19.6 million at the US box office, it took $34.2 million overseas resulting in an overall worldwide total of $53 million. The film had flopped. Even Marshall’s previous film, Memoirs of a Geisha, opened higher and earned far more. The Weinstein Company sold the foreign distribution rights, but whatever they got from it couldn’t have been enough, for once January came around, they eventually had to lay off a few people.
Chicago managed to make scandal and murder look fun and exciting when translated to the big screen. Nine, on the other hand, is far more serious. This is a story about a director whose marriage and movie is in crisis. Set in Italy, 1965, a world famous film director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) announces at a press conference the commencement of his new film, Italia. While there’s a title, a starring role for his muse Claudia and costumes being designed, what he doesn’t let on is that the film doesn’t have a script written. Amid the stress, Guido struggles with the numerous women who have left a mark on his life, and slowly heads towards a complete breakdown.
The film begins with Guido depressed, stressed, broken, and we don’t quite know how he got there. While trying to start production on a film, he finds the time to cheat on his wife Luisa (Cotillard) by sleeping with his mistress Carla (Cruz), and almost allows himself to become seduced by the journalist Stephanie (Kate Hudson). If the film is trying to get the audience to sympathize with Guido, it doesn’t work. If anyone deserves sympathy, it’s his wife Luisa (by the end of the film she’s no longer with him). Having to, “hide and lie and cheat,” as his wife puts it, Guido is a conflicted character, both hero and villain, who gets what he deserves because he is a bad man.
It’s even more strange to see that Carla and Stephanie seem perfectly happy to go to bed with Guido, but with Day-Lewis playing a character that’s largely miserable (he doesn’t smile very much) it’s difficult to see what they’re so attracted to. I’m guessing that these women (like many characters in the film) are more interested in his movies than the man himself.
While the musical numbers might have worked well on the stage, it’s rather disconcerting to see that the film has to show them being performed on a stage. The film frequently cuts to some alternate location where women sing their thoughts and feelings, or most probably Guido’s interpretation of how these women feel (I imagine that these performances are taking place in Guido’s head). While Marshall employed this tactic in Chicago (with musical numbers that "probably" took place in Roxie’s head), the problem with Nine is that the musical numbers feel like they’re getting in the way of the story, rather than telling the story. Some of them recount the past, and do little to explain the present. Even though they’re intercut with dialogue, they just slow the film down.
It’s worth noting that a lot of songs from the Broadway production do not appear in the film - not even the title song, Nine. Yet, it was felt necessary to include new songs specifically for the film, Cinema Italiano, Take it All and Guarda La Luna. Their inclusion allows the film to offer something uniquely different over the stage version. There isn’t anything really wrong with the songs themselves, but again, they don’t really enhance the overall story in anyway.
For example, Fergie’s Be Italian sounds great, but it doesn’t explain much about her character Saraghina, nor Guido’s. Apart from the song, she has no lines. The character may be an integral part of the story in the Broadway musical, but it feels like she’s been slipped into the film as an excuse to have Fergie perform the song, than to get her to act. It's a similar situation with Kate Hudson’s Cinema Italiano, which is a good song. Hudson sings it well (yes, she does), but it feels more like a self-contained music video than an essential part of the film. Even though they are the two most memorable songs, they’re sung by minor characters we know so little about and they don’t push the film forward.
During its release, Nine was lost amid the bigger blockbusters. Though I feel the film would have faltered if it opened any time of the year, the release date change was a strange move, and most likely suffered more because of it. If The Weinstein Company was expecting Nine to work as counter programming against the likes of Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and that Alvin sequel, it didn’t work. I remember when Nine opened, and I was split between it and Sherlock Holmes. I watched Sherlock Holmes.
As well as Marshall’s own Chicago, the revival of the musical has seen hits out of Moulin Rouge!, Mamma Mia! and Hairspray. While they may have the odd downbeat moment, they’re mostly fun, funny and at times uplifting. Nine is the complete opposite; a deeply serious multi-layered musical about a guy going through something that resembles a mid-life crisis, and ruining his marriage in the process. Fair play to Marshall for giving it a go, but it just didn’t connect with audiences, nor critics, for the reviews were terrible. Personally, I think taking the Broadway musical and reworking a film told from Luisa’s point of view might have made for a more interesting story (musical or not) - but I doubt anyone would want to take on a risky venture like that.