Yes, another day, another “Nine” post, or in this case, three posts in 48 hours, deal with it. Yet another trailer has been released via Yahoo and it’s a music trailer featuring Kate Hudson auto-tuning her way through a song called, “Cinema Italiano.” It’s not that she sounds bad, it’s that she just sounds a little soullessly perfect, which is what happens when vocals are autotuned to death.
Still style-wise? The film looks nonpareil. The tune does seems a little corny, but the cinematography, mood and atmosphere look top notch. Let’s hope it can translate into something that also has substance though and not the empty dazzle-pageantry that was “Dream Girls.”
A “fan” review has leaked already at AICN, but since it was a DGA screening, we can hopefully assume this was simply not just faboy off the street (btw, “Nine” director Rob Marshall confirms he is doing “Pirates 4”). Ok, so the reader is a fanboy, but of a different lot and his review is favorable.
First, let me mention that I actually work in the musical theater industry in NY, so I may have somewhat of a semi-biased-fan-boy approach to the film, having known the source material… having said that, let me say that NINE is a nice next move for Marshall, heavy with drama, conflict, madness, confusion and passion. Whereas CHICAGO relied more on the tongue-and-cheek satirical way of story telling, NINE is a lot more…grown up, complicated and darker. Don’t get me wrong, you still have the very CHICAGO-y scantily clad ladies in black, slinking down poles, opening their legs, dancing up a storm and all, but it’s all done in a very different way.
Day-Lewis is incomparable once again. Displaying a rather powerful singing voice, clear, distinct, commanding, he unfortunately doesn’t have a whole lot to sing in the movie as compared to the stage show (he only sings twice in the film) but both songs are masterful. He embodies Contini from head-to-toe, as one would only expect him to. Always with a cigarette in his hand, a twinge of chaos in his eye and looking like he should: like he crawled out of bed and his people kind of ‘put him together’- combed his hair, made his tie, shaved him so that he would not go out and embarrass himself. The complexities he finds in the character run very deep, making it easy to fall in love with him and forgive his madness. Marion Cotilard is deserving of another Oscar Nomination for this role. What she manages to with Louisa, is nothing short of spectacular.
The review goes on to say Kate Hudson is a nice surprise and Nicole Kidman is the weak link who sticks out like a sore thumb and was completely “miscast.”