Nine takes us back to the swinging 1960s in Italy where celebrated director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is ready to create another cinematic masterpiece. There’s just one little snag that’s keeping the production from moving forward….no script! Guido tries to stall his crew and the press long enough to create an outline for the movie.

Normally this would be a piece of cake if he didn’t have his wife, Luisa (Marion Cotillard), and his mistress, Carla (Penelope Cruz) to worry about. With all of the drama happening in his personal life it would be a piece of cake to turn his domestic turmoil into a movie.

Hhhmm, now there’s an idea.

A trusted friend of mine saw Nine before I did and echoed the chorus of unfavorable reviews about the latest movie musical from Rob Marshall. Yes, the same Rob Marshall that helped to revive the languishing movie musical genre with his hit adaptation of Chicago attempted to make lightning strike twice with another stage-to-celluloid transfer. So, while watching Nine I had to suppress the echoes of negative commentary I heard from other critics and friends. I fought to watch Nine as a first time viewer uninfluenced by outside sources.

I agree that Nine wasn’t as sensational as Chicago but I also think it a mistake to compare the two. Chicago was a more complex story with a larger cast of characters to deal with. Nine is pretty much about Guido with his “nine muses” either helping or hindering his journey of discovery and maturation. However, both Nine and Chicago share a dark and twisted foundation where most of the characters are not the most cheery or positive characters in musical theater. Guido loves women. Guido loves sex with women. Most of all, Guido loves Guido. Heck, they even wrote a song about him.

Like Mr. Marshall did with Chicago the musical numbers are done in a dream realm separate from reality. It’s very much like seeing the character’s private visions televised direct from his/her brain. When Guido takes a call from Carla instead of a split-screen showing Carla simply singing “A Call From The Vatican” into the phone Mr. Marshall takes us into Guido’s mindscape and the audience gets to see Carla’s dirty talk sculpted into a full scale burlesque number with Carla slinking around in her undergarments. The daydream musical numbers also allow for ghosts from Guido’s past to come alive again such as his deceased mother (Sophia Loren) and, to put it mildly, his “first crush” Saraghina (Fergie).

Honestly, I walked out of the theater and my first reaction was that Nine was okay. It wasn’t stupendous but it wasn’t the death knell for musical movies, either. I think Nine was marketed as the next Chicago and that was a mistake because Nine isn’t supposed to be “Chicago 2”. Different story, different characters and a different era. Even with the elaborate dance numbers Nine is a simpler and more intimate piece than Chicago was. It seemed better suited to one of those smaller theaters that shows mostly independent flicks rather than the cavernous multiplexes. Though, I’m glad that the larger theaters carried Nine because the sound and visuals benefit from the mega-speakers and the larger screen.

So yeah, at first I thought Nine was just okay. Then it happened. Days after seeing the musical I started humming “Be An Italian” as performed by Fergie and “Cinema Italiano” sung by Kate Hudson. I thought about how the story really got on track when Louisa Contini comes into the picture and makes Nine about more than Guido’s libido. When the Contini marriage was brought to the forefront that’s when the film dropped anchor and settled into a comfortable port for me. Then I was able to better understand Guido’s dilemma and the movie became much more than just a glittery homage to Federico Fellini.

Since I missed the highly acclaimed run of Nine on Broadway I can’t tell you if the film is better or worse than the stage version. But as a lover of musicals, whether performed on stage or screen, I really dug Nine. Yeah, the draw initially was the gorgeous female leads, including Nicole Kidman and Judi Dench, but there is an actual plot to be found and it’s a lot easier to follow than I expected.

I guess the bottom line is if you are still on the fence about seeing Nine I would tell you to give it a shot if you’re a fan of musicals or pretty ladies strutting about in gorgeous frocks while singing wonderful songs. Otherwise, it might be a safer bet to invest your box office bucks in something more certain, familiar and with a greater number of favorable reviews. Nine is a little bit off the popular path. It’s an acquired taste that some will enjoy in the theater and most will enjoy at home when it hits the home video market.

As for me, I liked Nine and I think Rob Marshall and his crew delivered a fine looking and fine sounding piece of cinema.

Rhymes With: Chicago (2002), Dreamgirls (2006), Cabaret (1972), Devdas (2002)