Nine Lives: deadbolt.com (?) review

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Hilary the Touched
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Nine Lives: deadbolt.com (?) review

Post by Hilary the Touched » Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:05 am

Nine Lives - Film Review

October, 17, 2005

By Jeff Schwister

What is the most successful feature film composed of short stories? Short Cuts, Magnolia, and Crash all come to mind. Movies like this find their power through intertwined plotlines. Learning about how these characters are connected keeps the audiences interested in the smaller stories within. The latest entry in the small genre, Nine Lives, doesn't connect in the same way. These stories almost stand alone with no interconnection and with that it left me wondering what the overall theme of these 10 - 12 minute moments was - maybe we're not connected at all? Or maybe it's just a series of short films.


Perhaps more importantly, how do you write about a series of short stories, or "vignettes" if you will, without discussing all of them? The quick answer is: you don't. So here is a quick recap of all nine stories in Rodrigo Garcia's Nine Lives. Each story begins with a single female name appearing on screen and is one continuous scene.


Sandra (Elpidia Carrillo). Sandra has spent four and a half months in LA County Jail for an unknown crime. Her emotional battle lies with only getting to see her daughter once a month.


Diana (Robin Wright Penn). The grocery store has never felt so uncomfortable and exciting. A pregnant Diana runs into her old flame, Damian (Jason Issacs). She attempts to continue shopping but is constantly pulled into revisiting their passion from the past. Both have moved on but emotions still run strong between the two.


Holly (Lisa Gay Hamilton). Holly arrives at her childhood home to confront her father, who turns out to be a guard from LA County Jail. Holly is very emotionally distraught from the past but her sister (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) remains unaware. The scene predictably ends with Holly pulling a gun on either her father or herself.


Sonia (Holly Hunter). It appears Sonia doesn't know the difference between a loving relationship and a dysfunctional one. She and her boyfriend openly fight in front of their friends, one of which is Damian.


Samantha (Amanda Seyfried). This is where the single take works most effective. Samantha cares for her father (wheelchair bound) and mother, Ruth (Sissy Spacek), in different ways. The camera showcases the constant movement and mood changes of Samantha from loving her dad to being annoyed with her mom.


Lorna (Amy Brenneman). If you are looking to feel uncomfortable, this is the short for you. Lorna goes to her deaf ex-husband's second wife's funeral. They proceed to have a sexual encounter with no understanding of what true feelings are involved.


Ruth (Spacek). Ruth is back and this time she's attempting an extramarital affair with Aidan Quinn. Quinn is relaxed in his role and it's surprising to see these two actors match up this closely in age. It seems Spacek has remained in her fifties for the last 25 years. In the background Sandra (from the first story) is escorted out of her hotel room by the police.


Camille (Kathy Baker). Baker plays the mother we all know and despise. She is controlling and nasty to her husband (Joe Mantegna). She also has been diagnosed with breast cancer and her nurse is Holly. There is no time reference, so it is unknown if this means Holly has survived her trauma with her father.


Maggie (Glenn Close). This is a fitting end. Close and Dakota Fanning play great off of one another as a mother and daughter visiting a family grave. Fanning, once again acts well beyond her years. This story leaves the audience with the feeling of loss once it is discovered whose grave it is.


Loss or more accurately lost is the lingering feeling Nine Lives leaves its audience. The overlapping of some of the characters in some of the stories is a detriment. It distracts because it doesn't seem to be anything more than a coincidence. Garcia is showing that life can intertwine, but it doesn't serve a higher purpose in storytelling. There isn't a moment to laugh and each story is gone so quickly there isn't time to embrace their pain.


Each short story is one continuous take. The purpose is to emphasize the feeling of real life, but the effect it had was the realization that nothing much happens in 10 minutes. More importantly, nothing can be resolved in that short of a time. The cinematography is unique and should be studied by film students, but a better example of single take (and the power it can have) is the opening scene of A History of Violence.


The problem is, if the story is good there is the feeling of wanting it to last longer (Diana, Sonia). And if it is bad (Holly, Lorna) it shouldn't even have been included. Some of the parts are better than the whole. In other short story films you marvel at how the director made it all come together, Garcia just gives you a glance at life, and although many of the women have terrible difficulties, we don't see enough going on.

http://www.thedeadbolt.com/news/101705/ ... esfilm.php

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