Nine on Wire

Last week around this time I blogged about one of three movies I saw that weekend.  I meant to get to the other two very quickly but here I am, a week later.  Here are the other two movie "reviews."

1. Nine: This movie is about a director (Guido Contini played by Daniel Day-Lewis but is supposed to be Fellini) who has lost his creative drive but has fantasies about all the women in his life, who happen to be amazingly beautiful.  There is more to it but I have to admit, I am not a cultured movie watcher.  My mother loooved movies but had a flavor for obscure science fiction films and threw in some action films (e.g. Rambo) for the old man.  Fellini films have never really reached me (i.e. they have sometimes been confusing to figure out), which may explain my dismay at this film.

I was, however, taken by the sexy performances of Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson and Fergie.  Hot, hot, hot!  Seriously.  I think it was the Slate Spoiler Special on this movie that called it the "movie of boobs" or something like that.  Very appropriate. I do not recommend this movie.  Unless you want to watch a spoiled artist go through a mid-life crisis and only see women for their voluptuous parts.  The San Francisco Chronicle captures the synopsis perfectly, "It's the story of Guido, a film director who lies to his women and cheats on them - and yet we're supposed to think of him as adorable and to see his transgressions as evidence of his restless creativity."

My final comment is a quote from the New York Times review:

“I can’t make this movie,” [Guido] sings. Substitute “watch” for “make” and provide your own music. [This] is a movie about creative blockage and sexual confusion, but not quite in the way it wants to be. Straining to capture artistic frenzy, it descends into vulgar chaos, less a homage to Federico Fellini’s “8 ½” (its putative inspiration) than a travesty.

2. Man on Wire:  If you haven't heard this is the movie about the guy that walked from one of the NYC world trade center towers to the other from top to top on a wire.  Everyone loved it.  Energetic, creative guy with a passion to walk high up on wires.  Right, well I thought the details and logistics of it all were interesting but it could have been about 45 minutes shorter.  I actually tired of hearing the red headed French guy (Philippe Petit) talk. I know, how disappointing to read - you probably loved this movie.

Ok, this is a long excerpt but says what I want to say - from the Onion's AV Club:

The photographs and films of Philippe Petit's various late-'60s/early-'70s tightrope stunts...are suitably breathtaking, and the very idea of walking between the World Trade Center buildings definitely stirs the imagination, and evokes nostalgia for the days when crimes of trespassing and disorderly conduct were more benign. But [the] film lacks a certain broader scope—or necessary contrast. Marsh could've picked any number of counter-stories to put Petit's feat in context: the building of the towers, the history of Houdini-like public stunts, the relative letdown of Petit's post-WTC life, etc. Instead, Man On Wire mainly focuses on the logistics of the stunt so intensely that the details of shooting a rope across the chasm and hiding out from security guards eventually lose their sense of wonder, and become as mundane as listening to an ex-jock describe how he once caught the winning pass in the state championship. It's a story worth telling, yes—but after 90 minutes, it's hard not to wonder if the storyteller can talk about anything else.

 Adieu.