In Theaters: Nine

Fergie plays La Saraghina, the beach-bound puttana whom Guido and his childhood friends would pay for advice and a little coochie-coo. One of the most memorable, haunting sequences from 8 ½, Marshall's redux succeeds largely on the strength, believe it or not, of Fergie's commitment; she'd loom large in my imagination as well. It is the best sense we get of both Guido's originally innocent but now highly problematic appetites -- even his formative experiences of love and sex were based in transaction -- and his conception of women as archetypes, as characters from which meaning must be extracted ("No wonder you've got no script," Guido is chastised, "You're too busy inventing your own life."). Fergie sells her big stage number, "Be Italian," like a pro, easily out-singing and out-emoting everyone else on the premises. The less said about Kate Hudson (a meretricious Vogue reporter), Sophia Loren (Guido's mother, imagined as a ghost), and Nicole Kidman (Guido's former leading lady), the better, although I will say that the extent to which the latter two simply offer up the idea of themselves (in Loren's case, always accompanied by a musical swell; "Loren's Theme"?) as sufficient cause for praise and admiration is alarming. Too soon, Kidman. Too soon.

Day-Lewis, almost as skinny as his knit silk ties, lacks the mitigating warmth of an actor like Marcello; his songs and his voice are also the weakest. Cotillard works it out in the only scene in the film that calls on the actors to pull from anything besides their diaphragms: confronting Guido after watching him make the same play with an auditioning actress that pierced her years ago, she seethes, "You think to create great art is to forgive yourself in public. [...] You're just an appetite, and if you stop being greedy you die." In an ensemble pictures where nothing quite hangs together, it's individual moments like these that audiences will find themselves wolfing down, grateful for some small substance to go with their dishy helping of style.

Pages: 1 2 3