The 2009 film “Nine” — not to be confused with the 2009 film “9” — was an Oscar darling in the most frustrating possible way. It was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress (Penélope Cruz), Best Art Direction, Best Costumes, and Best Original Song. That was just enough nominations for mad Oscar completists to have to see “Nine,” a movie that, many agreed, looked dull and baffling. The critics seemed to think so, anyway, as “Nine” only has a 39% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s the lowest approval rating of any film to star Daniel Day-Lewis.
“Nine” requires some explanation. Firstly, the film was based on a Broadway musical that debuted in 1982. The original production starred Raul Julia, playing a character that was very similar to, but legally distinct from, real-life Italian master Federico Fellini. The character, named Guido Contini, found both his marriage and his creative spirit flagging in the face of a midlife crisis. He was about to turn 40 (so old!), and he began to fear a dull future, absent of the nubile Italian women he spent his younger years romancing. Also, he has a mistress, which feels like a natural extension of a Fellini story. “Nine,” as the title implies, was extrapolated from Fellini’s semi-autobiographical 1963 cinematic freakout “8½,” handily one of the most self-indulgent films ever made.
“Nine,” then, was a 1980s Broadway show based on one of the most famous 1960s Italian movies of all time, and one might imagine there was a certain kind of arthouse-attending urbanite in the middle of the Broadway/Italian arthouse Venn diagram.
In 2009, however, when Rob Marshall adapted the musical to the big screen, many wondered who would want to see such a thing. Marshall previously had a big hit with his terrible version of “Chicago” in 2002, so it seemed logical — from a “we want to win awards” perspective — to give him another Broadway show to adapt. It seems, though, that lightning couldn’t strike twice. The film bombed, critics hated it, and even Daniel Day-Lewis as Contini couldn’t save it.
This post was originally published on here
