Nine Lives: Catholic News Service's online review

[Hilary the Touched]

Nine Lives

By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Here you have nine movies for the price of one, and though not all are equally good, each is worthy, and several are outstanding.

"Nine Lives" (Magnolia) is a finely acted anthology with a central female protagonist in every segment, each filmed in one continuous 10- to 14-minute shot (a brilliant stroke).

There's Los Angeles county jail inmate Sandra (Elpidia Carrillo), incarcerated for a reason we never learn, who earnestly works to stay on good behavior, diligently mopping the hallway floors, until her frustration at not being able to speak with her daughter through the glass window in the visitors area causes her to snap.

Pregnant Diana (Robin Wright Penn) runs into her former flame, Damian (Jason Isaacs) (also now married), in the supermarket, and underneath the superficial banter, old feelings are rekindled.

Powder-keg Holly (Lisa Gay Hamilton), seething with serious stepfather issues, forces herself to confront him (Miguel Sandoval), and while waiting for him to come home, thrashes out the past with her sister (Sydney Tamiia Poitier).

Sonia (Holly Hunter) -- and her boyfriend, Martin (Stephen Dillane) -- turn up at the apartment of another couple, Lisa (Molly Parker) and Damian, for a dinner date, and reveal to their hosts a deeply troubled relationship below the seemingly ordinary surface. The scene is filmed with Sonia and Martin talking to the other couple, who are mainly seen in their mirrored reflection -- one of many beautiful filmic flourishes.

Self-sacrificing teenage Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) is caught between sparring parents Ruth and Larry (Sissy Spacek and Ian McShane), who barely speak to each other.

Lorna (Amy Brenneman) meets her ex-husband, Andrew (William Fichtner), who can neither hear nor speak, at his wife's funeral, and discovers he still loves her passionately.

Ruth, conflicted about what she's about to do, checks into a motel with her would-be lover, Henry (Aidan Quinn).

Camille (Kathy Baker) faces a mastectomy, with all the heightened emotions that entails, using her empathetic husband, Richard (Joe Mantegna), as a sounding board.

And, in the extremely touching final chapter, Maggie (Glenn Close) and daughter Maria (Dakota Fanning) have a picnic at a gravesite, though we never see the engraving.

Writer-director Rodrigo Garcia has fashioned a thoughtful -- and often sad -- meditation on mankind's interconnection. Indeed, some of the characters in one story will reappear in another, allowing us to see them in a different context. The overlapping lives don't coalesce to quite the extent of other multistoried films like "Crash" and "Magnolia." These are more clearly divided tales. Several of the characters marvel at the oneness of the universe, most poignantly Camille and Richard, as the former is drifting off to tranquilized sleep.

Garcia's dialogue has extraordinary naturalness about it, which, together with the perfectly judged performances, surmount the occasional slow patches.

It's a testament to the quality of the material that so many big-name stars wanted to be part of this independent film. Though its quiet power won't be to every taste, "Nine Lives" feels like the stuff of life, warts and all.

The film contains profanity and rough language, premarital sex, some sexual talk and a nongraphic sexual encounter, attempted suicide and murder, and an abortion discussion. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.


http://www.catholicnews.com/data/movies/05mv643.htm