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Kathy Baker,
Amy Brenneman,
Elpidia Carrillo,
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Rodrigo García,
Rodrigo García
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: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
: 112 min.
: English
: English, Spanish, French
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Filmmaker Rodrigo García takes an unusual look into the lives of nine different women in this episodic drama. Each of the film's nine sequences has been staged as a single shot, using the Steadicam system to allow the camera to follow the action fluidly and without cuts. In these short episodes (lasting between ten and 14 minutes), Holly (Lisa Gay Hamilton) has a brief moment of reverie while confronting the specters of her past in her old neighborhood. Maggie (Glenn Close) escorts her young daughter Maria (Dakota Fanning) to a cemetery as they visit the graves of their family members. Ruth (Sissy Spacek) is a married woman contemplating an affair while visiting Henry (Aidan Quinn) in his hotel room. Diana (Robin Wright Penn) unexpectedly runs into an old boyfriend, Damian (Jason Isaacs), while shopping for groceries. Camilla (Kathy Baker) is a hospital patient awaiting surgery for cancer. Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) is a teenage girl who helps look after her handicapped father Larry (Ian McShane). Sandra (Elpidia Carrillo) is a female prison inmate who is expecting a visit from her children. Sonia (Holly Hunter) lashes out at her boyfriend Martin (Stephen Dillane) when she finds out he's been cheating on her. And Lorna (Amy Brenneman) has an unexpectedly moving encounter with her ex-husband Andrew (William Fichtner) as she pays her respects to his second wife, who has just passed away. Nine Lives premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| Don't Miss This One!
by Scaramouche
March 11, 2006 - 11:44 AM PST
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2 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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This would make a fascinating film to show in combination with Crash as another multi-character look at private lives in LA. I agree with the first reviewer Green Cine reviewer on all counts, so I won't be redundant. The performances are outstanding and the writing and directing equally so.
The stories themselves are often poignant and almost always perfect representations of our complex inter-personal lives. And men, despite the appearance that this could be a "chick flick," it isn't. The men are also well drawn and the male-female relationships
are depicted with great insight.
Still, this isn't for those who are uncomfortable with a movie made up of very short stories that leave you wanting to know what happens next. |
| A Great Humanist Writer/Director
by talltale
February 19, 2006 - 3:48 PM PST
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6 out of 8 members found this review helpful
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The master of the subtle vignette, writer/director Rodrigo Garcia follows up his amazing "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her" with his new NINE LIVES. (In between times he's directed various segments of "Six Feet Under.") Featuring some of the best actresses and actors North America has to offer, the movie gives each the chance to shine, and each comes through like the mini sun s/he is. The pieces here occasionally connect, but only peripherally, and they don't add up in the same way that the more woven-together stories in the earlier film did. No matter: the result is equally wonderful.
Garcia enjoys stopping his scenes a moment or two short of expected--adding a layer of mystery and alerting the viewer that reaching the destination may not compare to making the journey. He also understands/appreciates women better than any director I know. Consequently, the actresses here--from Kathy Baker and Molly Parker to Lisa Gay Hamilton and Robin Wright Penn--do sterling work and have been given appropriately glowing notices from much of the press. What I didn't expect was the near-perfect screenplay: dialog as real as it comes and only maybe once (a little speech given by to her daughter by the Sissy Spacek character) sounding too "writer-ly."
Surprising, too, are the splendid performances from all the men: Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Aidan Quinn, an unrecognizable Ian McShane, and perhaps especially the great William Fichtner, who does yet another boffo job. From Soderbergh's "The Underneath" to "Virtuosity," "Reckless," "Go," and "The Chumscrubber," this guy keeps knocking 'em out of the park. He's our own Olivier, yet his special combination of versatility, energy and utter believability goes unremarked. Much as I hate the place, Los Angeles offers an array of talent that is something to marvel over. Mr. Garcia, one of today's great humanist filmmakers, seems bent on using as much of it as he can--which is all to the good fortune of us viewers. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.12)
26 Votes
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