“Nine”: Not quite a 10

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:20:00 +0000

In "Nine," inspired by Fellini's "8 1/2," Daniel Day-Lewis faces the unenviable task of stepping into the shoes of Marcello Mastroianni -- and they have to be dancing shoes, no less. Day-Lewis isn't Mastroianni -- who is? -- but watching him is one of the pleasures scattered here and there through Rob Marshall's ambitious but cluttered film version of Arthur M. Kopit and Maury Yeston's hit Broadway musical.

Day-Lewis isn't even trying, of course, to play Mastroianni in any strict sense. "Nine" is a loose musical reimagining of Fellini's 1963 picture about an auteur, Mastroianni's Guido, in search of his elusive next movie. That Guido -- like this one, played by Day-Lewis -- is haunted by the women of his past and confounded by the women in his present; he needs to find inspiration in them, not just chaos.

Salon.com > Nine

“Nine”: Not quite a 10