Nine Lives review from Film Threat

[Hilary the Touched]

Got this as a Google alert:

"Prison isn’t just the L.A. County Jail where Sandra (Elpidia Carrillo) mops the floor against harsh sunlight streaming through the windows. It’s the supermarket where a pregnant Diana (Robin Wright Penn) encounters a former lover (Jason Isaacs) and is internally tormented as to whether she should have stayed with him. It’s the house where distraught Holly (Lisa Gay Hamilton) demands to her sister (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) the need to see her father alone. It’s the posh apartment building where Sonia (Holly Hunter) and her husband (Stephen Dillane) meet their friends (Jason Isaacs and Molly Parker), and uncomfortable truths emerge. The two rooms in the house where Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) talks to her parents (Sissy Spacek and Ian McShane) also is a kind of prison. It’s difficult enough for Lorna (Amy Brenneman) to attend the funeral of her ex-husband’s deceased wife, but even worse when a few people claim she shouldn’t even be there. And the places and characters go on, as only director Rodrigo Garcia could see them, in a very novel way.

No cuts, no mournful fade-outs, and no stopping is what he was thinking. In having Steadicam shots of 10-12 minutes each, all the actors involved really have to give it everything they can in skill, stamina, and understanding of their characters. Garcia and cinematographer Xavier Pérez Grobet employ harsh white light as they hold their own magnifying glass to the women whose lives are their jail cells. Sandra is the first woman, spending her days inside the L.A. County Jail, angry over the phone in the visitors’ area not working, preventing her from talking to her daughter.

The figurative prisons are all around L.A. and populated by women walking around, fretting, worrying, seething, frustrated, sad, and never completely pleased or content. Penn is affecting early on in her story with Isaacs as they talk about what they’re up to now, and delve into a painful past, throwing Penn into an unpleasant conundrum which leads to a heart-rending final moment that is as complete as Garcia makes it. These women will never fix their own lives just for our satisfaction. Their problems go beyond a running time, fictional as they are. But in human spirit, they are immensely real. Dakota Fanning has what so far is her finest role, as Maria, young daughter to Maggie (Glenn Close), discussing certain issues in life while walking around a graveyard and eventually sitting down. She is so deeply connected with Close and vice-versa, a proper final story in a wrenching journey, as they are the only two characters entirely outside. During “Ruthâ€

[Sarah]

Amen.

[Gillian]

Thanks for posting the review, Hil. It's unforunate it didn't get a screening at the TIFF. With three projects making the festival circuit, I'd hoped that at least one would've made the cut.