Nine Lives (B or 3/4 stars)
'Nine Lives', a drama directed by Rodrigo Garcia, comprise a collection of 9 short stories (so to speak) on film; each with a strong female character at its center. Told through 9 unbroken takes, each of the 'stories' are windows into 10-14 tumultuous minutes of these women's lives. The camera follows each scenario without a cut. Some characters show up in more than one 'story', but not much links one to the next. As each story ends in a jolting black-out, we are left to ponder what happens next. Not every story works, and while we never know what really happens next, this film technique & storytelling is something to behold.
All women face some drastic problems in a very small amount of time: 1) Sandra (Elpidia Carrillo) is a sympathetic convict who's distraught that she can't communicate with her daughter through a broken visitor's telephone. This quick story makes you sit up straight in your seat and realize that the 'telling' of the next 8 stories will be unique. 2) Diana (Robin Wright Penn) meets an ex-lover (Jason Isaacs) at the supermarket & struggles to conceal her true emotions. This is one of my favorite vignettes. 3) Holly (Lisa Gay Hamilton) is a flighty woman who can't seem to forget a dark past and forgive her step dad for inflicting an unmentioned pain. 4) Sonia (Holly Hunter) starts a highly emotional fight with her boyfriend at a dinner party which makes for an uncomfortable beginning to the night.
5) Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) is caught in the middle of the ailing father who needs her (Ian McShane) & her loving mother who's tired of caring for him, as well. Both parents lean on this poor teenager as a crutch. But they don't want to stifle her college aspirations, either. 6) Lorna (Amy Brenneman) attempts to comfort her deaf ex-husband (William Fichtner) at his current wife's funeral. Does Lorna have anything to do with his wife's suicide? 7) Ruth (Sissy Spacek) considers cheating on her husband at a nearby motel. 8) Camille (Kathy Baker), understandably, takes some anger out on her nurse & her husband before her breast cancer surgery. 9) And Maggie (Glenn Close) takes her daughter (Dakota Fanning) for a picnic in the cemetery. You'll see how bizarre that one gets.
Each segment is perceptive & richly focused. Everything that happens before our eyes is important 'in the moment'. Really, without creating a cohesive 'whole', the director has achieved formulating the 'perfect scene' ... 9 times. Because the camera never breaks for an edit, & because the ensemble acting is so naturalistic, the intimate drama that is captured in these brief shots are all the more powerful; we salivate to see what happens beyond the black-out! Flaws? While most vignettes are emotional & gripping, not all achieve 'greatness', and nothing really links all 9 stories. Each story, rather, is an individual observation of one woman's momentary trial and tribulation within 14 minutes of her life. Not for everybody; but I find this to be a very interesting movie.
All women face some drastic problems in a very small amount of time: 1) Sandra (Elpidia Carrillo) is a sympathetic convict who's distraught that she can't communicate with her daughter through a broken visitor's telephone. This quick story makes you sit up straight in your seat and realize that the 'telling' of the next 8 stories will be unique. 2) Diana (Robin Wright Penn) meets an ex-lover (Jason Isaacs) at the supermarket & struggles to conceal her true emotions. This is one of my favorite vignettes. 3) Holly (Lisa Gay Hamilton) is a flighty woman who can't seem to forget a dark past and forgive her step dad for inflicting an unmentioned pain. 4) Sonia (Holly Hunter) starts a highly emotional fight with her boyfriend at a dinner party which makes for an uncomfortable beginning to the night.
5) Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) is caught in the middle of the ailing father who needs her (Ian McShane) & her loving mother who's tired of caring for him, as well. Both parents lean on this poor teenager as a crutch. But they don't want to stifle her college aspirations, either. 6) Lorna (Amy Brenneman) attempts to comfort her deaf ex-husband (William Fichtner) at his current wife's funeral. Does Lorna have anything to do with his wife's suicide? 7) Ruth (Sissy Spacek) considers cheating on her husband at a nearby motel. 8) Camille (Kathy Baker), understandably, takes some anger out on her nurse & her husband before her breast cancer surgery. 9) And Maggie (Glenn Close) takes her daughter (Dakota Fanning) for a picnic in the cemetery. You'll see how bizarre that one gets.
Each segment is perceptive & richly focused. Everything that happens before our eyes is important 'in the moment'. Really, without creating a cohesive 'whole', the director has achieved formulating the 'perfect scene' ... 9 times. Because the camera never breaks for an edit, & because the ensemble acting is so naturalistic, the intimate drama that is captured in these brief shots are all the more powerful; we salivate to see what happens beyond the black-out! Flaws? While most vignettes are emotional & gripping, not all achieve 'greatness', and nothing really links all 9 stories. Each story, rather, is an individual observation of one woman's momentary trial and tribulation within 14 minutes of her life. Not for everybody; but I find this to be a very interesting movie.