Rob Marshall (CHICAGO) is good at musical staging on screen, but he is no Federico Fellini. If that statement means something to you, then you'll understand where I'm coming from when reviewing this film. Often a more cerebral experience than an emotional one, the film, adapted from the Italian musical based on Fellini's classic 8 ½, is a thoughtful exploration of an Italian movie director in crisis during the 1960s. And because the film is so nuanced and steeped in Italian cinema history, this production made the film geek in me smile. So it's a double edged sword, having seen 8 ½ before, it both enhances and takes away from experiencing this film at the same time.
Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis, THERE WILL BE BLOOD) is a living legend of Italian movie directing. Production of his latest film, Italia, is about to begin. The problem is that he hasn't written the script yet. At a press conference, he sneaks out and runs away to a spa to get away and think. He pushes off his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard, LA VIE EN ROSE) from joining him, but embraces the arrival of his mistress Carla (Penelope Cruz, VOLVER).
Eventually his producer finds him and brings the entire production to the spa. Lilli his costume designer (Judi Dench, MRS. BROWN) is just making costumes that she wants to make. Guido's muse, the international star Claudia (Nicole Kidman, THE HOURS), is nagging him for the script. An American reporter for Vogue named Stephanie (Kate Hudson, ALMOST FAMOUS) follows him around, wanting to know what makes him and his films tick. And if these women aren't enough pressure, he has constant visions of his beloved Mamma (Sophia Loren, TWO WOMEN) and Saraghina (Fergie, GRINDHOUSE), a prostitute from his childhood.
Oscar winners Day-Lewis, Cotillard and Cruz have the meatiest roles. Day-Lewis not only sings, but sings wonderfully with an Italian accent. But it's not his singing skills that are crucial to the film. He gives the immature Guido charm. We sympathize with him because we believe he's a little boy lost looking for guidance from anywhere. Cotillard gives the film its emotional core. Her two songs, "My Husband Makes Movies" and "Take It All," pull the audience into the results of Guido's actions. Cruz too provides real emotional complications for Guido. She loves him, but can't stand being hidden away in a cheap room so that the director can keep up illusions that everyone sees right through.
Oscar-winner Kidman has the right feel for the buxom blonde muse of Guido. Oscar-winner Dench, as always, adds class to the production, even to her musical number, which is the most out of place. Hudson gives her best performance since her Oscar nomination for ALMOST FAMOUS. Her tune "Cinema Italiano" is lively and a great ode to the Italian neo-realistic movement of the 1960s. Oscar-winner Loren bucks the old grey haired stereotype of Italian mothers. Fergie's role has no lines until she bursts out the film's signature showstopper "Be Italian." It was in my head for days after.
Through the story of Guido, it tells a personal story, but also represents Italy in the 1960s in a larger sense. It embraces the contradictions in the Italian psyche. Sainted mothers vs. mistresses and whores. Sin vs. Catholicism. Neo-realism vs. surrealism. Even though the musical interludes give the story a dreamlike quality, Marshall doesn't do so in the emotional way Fellini did. It doesn't capture the overwhelming surreal pressure on Guido and ends with a more traditional conclusion. That said Marshall still finds an evocative set of images for the more conventional finale. It says a lot about what drives Guido in his life and his art. It's an artistic ending for a film about film as art.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
