in which some of our favorite and not-so-favorite actors and singers get together to... act and sing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJpwwdOomtY

You know what? This movie was quite entertaining, if ultimately shallow and quite inconsequential...

The story is this: Rome, 1965, Cinecutta Studio... famous director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is about to begin production on his magnum opus, Italia, starring his longtime muse Claudia Jenson (Nicole Kidman)... problem is, he doesn't have a script so he has no idea what the movie's about... meanwhile, he struggles to maintain his relations with a few women, most notably his mistress Carla (Penelope Cruz), a flirty journalist (Kate Hudson), and his lead costumer/good buddy (Judi Dench), while reminiscing about his moms (Sophia Loren), and a hooker by the sea that he met as a kid (Fergie -- yes, THAT Fergie)... and then his wife (Marion Cotillard) shows up... musical-romantic complications ensue...

So, yes, it's yet another "gay" Hollywood musical, except with a lot of ass and tittes for the straight dudez (no nudity, however)... and the songs are presented mostly as thoughts that each character has; in other words, there are no scenes of people talking then suddenly bursting into song... there would be a melodramatic scene then a number, then back to the melodrama, then a number, and so on...

The movie is certainly not as, uh, heavy as Rob's last musical, Chicago, nor is it dark as the film I immediately thought of once this started: Bob Fosse's All That Jazz; this movie is all fun and surface-level thrills, which is fine... the score was very cool, the picture looked great (shot by Dion Beebe), and the choreography was on-point... only problem for me was that it all didn't really add up to much... it's just the story of a stressed-out director (Daniel-Day brought the heat as usual even though he really didn't have to do much besides look worried; there's no Fosse-esque health dangers to be found here) trying to juggle various women and thoughts of various women while suffering from writer's block... there's no sense of stakes, or anything that would make the audience want to see Guido start his movie... the problem isn't with the character, btw, he's actually a very cool customer, it's just that there's no story meat here for us to ultimately give a shit... but I still liked the movie anyway for the serious "Let's Put on a Show!" vibe it gave off, which means it was highly entertaining as a whole...

Singing-wise, there were some hits and misses. The actors didn't have much vocal range, of course; Daniel-Day has a very good singing voice and was fine here, as was Marion Cotillard, and Judi Dench... I had a harder time fooling with Kate Hudson's and Nic Kidman's singing, though... Penelope was okay with the singing, but then again I wasn't really listening her words -- and once you see her VERY sexy number, you'll see why... and of course, as the only "professional" singer, I gotta give credit to Fergie for bringing the heat, so OKP should prepare to hate on her once again... each actor got a number to sing, save Daniel-Day and Marion who (if I remember correctly) each got two...

It's a very tight and briskly-paced film, even at 2 hours; I think Daniel-Day, Marion, Judi, Penelope, and the movie itself will get Oscar nominations... I liked it, but didn't love it, or at least love it as much as Chicago...

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Can't wait.
DDL is my favorite actor, I liked Chicago and am a HUGE fan of Dion Beebe's cinematography.

PEACE

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Because right now this feels about as necessary as that Bollywood version of The Godfather.

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It doesn't have much to do with "right now." If I recall correctly, Anthony Minghella wrote the script adaptation, so this has been in development for a while.

And I think the musical stands well on its own. It's more of a loving homage to 8 1/2 than any sort of remake. But I haven't seen the film, so I can only comment on the theater side.

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Tolkin said the producers interviewed 14 writers before they got to him; he's a big fan of both Fellini and the stage show, so he relished working on this. He also said that if you read the shooting script, it's basically 8 1/2 with musical numbers... he also said that he was able to use this work to touch on Fellini's life, particularly his marriage to Giuletta Messina...

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how long this production has been in the pipes. I should've acknowledged Tolkin as well.

I'm glad to hear it was fun. One of my favorite songs was cut... and I didn't hear great advance buzz about Nicole Kidman, who I already don't really care for (even though she's not a huge role).

I have a bet with a musical theatre nerd friend, who thinks this movie is going to suck. I mean, easy bet for me with the advance buzz, really, LOL.

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I can't imagine a musical adaptation being justified.

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hell-below.com

It's really not a strict adaptation. It takes the story of the film, tells it with a different style, has some terrific songs/dances, and serves more as an homage than a spin-off.

I reserve the right to take it back once I see the movie. There'll almost certainly be some more visual homages in the film, I'd imagine. But the show itself is fun.

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It seemed all Daniel Day did was sit around with his head in his hands (which of course is the universally-known indicator of "creative frustration")

I also thought both Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz gave the best performances, and that's because they (imo) had the most dramatic material to work with... to be honest, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Fergie, and Nic Kidman were harder to grade for me, simply because they were walking symbols who weren't given much to work with besides the songs: the Needy Mistress, the Flirt, the Whore, the Star...


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Major tank at the box office.

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Sometimes, I felt the transition of the number from stage to screen was a bit, well, stagey, but the film overall works.

Penelope Cruz gets the Hottest Scene of the Year award. That phone sex number... yowza.

Judi Dench is always great, Daniel Day-Lewis is always great, and Marion Cotillard has not missed in a single performance of hers I've seen.

Kate Hudson was surprisingly good in a small role. Fergie, also surprisingly, had the best singing and the best dance routine.

Nicole Kidman didn't work for me. Like, at all.

Overall, definitely worth seeing... though musical haters won't be converted. See it for Cruz's sexy number though... yeesh, I was sweating.

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too many stars for my liking. every time a new one shows up-- which is about every ten minutes-- you get pulled out of the movie. it was like watching an episode of TMZ. fergie and kidman were especially unnecessary. like dude above said, the story was inconsequential. it was a thin string to tie all the various musical numbers together. i thought kate hudson had the best musical number, but her acting is meh. the music got better towards the end, and marion cotilard is great. overall, it didn't work for me. wifey loved it though.

"i smack clowns with nouns, punch herbs with verbs..."

Daniel Day-Lewis' last song.

I'm not a fan of Penélope Cruz or Nicole Kidman.

There were things I liked.

And things I didn't like.

Overall, it was a cool movie.

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Lamentations 3:26
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

Wish she had more screen time. So, I wouldn't recommend seeing the film just for her.

I will probably store those ideas for an eventual article.

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Larry Otis!
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having seen 8 1/2 in the past, i had to force it out my head and take the movie for what it was.

It just started off flat in my opinion. I was bored the first 30 minutes but as it went on the story became more interesting to me.

Hudson and Kidman's characters were useless and served as flimsy road blocks for guido.

Dench, Day-Lewis and Cotillard were the only characters that keep me attentive throughout since they were given more thorough roles to play, even though Guido seemed like even more of an enigma and introvert than in 8 1/2. 8 1/2 ws almost three hours so having all those characters worked but in a 90 mintute movie it felt rushed throwing all these people in.Oh, and Sophia Loren as the mother sorta worked for me.

overall, this felt like a cliff-noted version of 8 1/2 with no real connections to the characters . the only songs that stood out were "Be Italian", which seemed to have had more time and effort placed into than any other number and Hudson's only because its was so upbeat and catchy. the whole movie felt superficial throughout.

i'd say wait for dvd with this one.