Nine | Movies

Review

Losing your delusions, with considerable style

by Paul Stock

Some people take professional deadlines, marital responsibilities and extra-marital affairs very seriously. In "Nine", Daniel Day-Lewis plays director Guido Contini, a man who, put simply, is not one of those people.

Guido is only 10 days away from shooting his eagerly awaited epic, "Italia". The trouble is, while the film has a grandiose title and his current muse is returning to star in the feature, the renowned "genius" hasn't even started the screenplay. And he has writer's block.

Hoping to escape the multiple sources of his anxieties (basically his work and relationship responsibilities) and subsequently write his script, Guido takes flight and checks into a hotel under a pseudonym. But his mistress (Penelope Cruz) still manages to surprise him. Not long after, his producer also moves the production team to join him at the hotel and, to top things off, his wife (Marion Cotillard) arrives to remind him of his life's priorities.

So, rather than just having to belt out a screenplay in a little over a week, Guido somehow has to also bring his relationships, imagination and enormous ego into line. It could all end in tears, but it's still fun to watch.

Directed by Rob Marshall ("Chicago") and set in the fashionable world of Italy in the 1960s, "Nine" is a visually slick modern musical and the song-and-dance numbers are quite delicious.

The musical scenes are framed as daydreams in the minds of the characters rather than naturalised scenes within the narrative. Strangely, the songs are all performed on Guido's skeletal sound stage, which possibly speaks to just how self-absorbed Guido is; even other people's imaginations conform to his delusions.

Day-Lewis plays the part of the tortured, egocentric genius with style and good humour, and the women playing the characters competing (and mostly failing) to inspire Guido deliver evocative performances. Their compelling efforts to tempt, placate and encourage Guido underpin his corresponding struggle to focus his own imagination.