Nine Lives | Elpidia Carrillo, Aomawa Baker | This Catfood Fuels the Soul

Nine Lives | Elpidia Carrillo, Aomawa Baker | No credit to Salinger?

DVDs:

Nine Lives

	Nine Lives Elpidia Carrillo, Aomawa Baker Sony Pictures, 2006 average customer review:based on 41 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This Catfood Fuels the Soul

'Nine Lives' is the cleverest at presenting the interlocking story design popular in 2005 without seeming contrived. ('Crash' is a better movie, but 'Nine Lives' is the best at assembling the interweaving plots. 'Syriana' is more loosely put together, but wins for being realistic.) As has been perennially told, 'Nine Lives' contains several short films that are related by threads in plot and relationships to show key scenes of angst in women's lives. For me the favorite scene is when a hispanic woman distinguishes herself as a goody-goody inmate and must face mental cruelty by a male guard. Other poignant moments come when two former lovers run into each other at a grocery store and realize that fate had separated them only to find them again married with children to another. Another woman needs the comfort from her husband as she faces a mastectomy operation. The cleverest scenario is when a woman must face the family of her ex-husband who committed suicide. As she seems to get the blame, she finds herself in a sticky situation.

The movie's revelations provide for satisfying "ah-ha" moments. It comes together beautifully with little tragedies that are filled with heart-breaking revelations. The acting is admirable with well-known stars altruistically taking on supporting roles (Glen Close, Mary Kay Place, Joe Montegna, and Sissy Spacek). While other lesser known actors do a maverick job at the helm, including Miguel Sandoval, Lisa Gay Hamilton, and Dakota Fanning. Rodrigo Garcia does a great job capturing all the tension. 'Nine Lives' is a five-star movie that will leave the viewer with nine stomach aches.

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No credit to Salinger?

Though I really love this movie, I find it disconcerting that in none of the writer's interviews does he credit J.D. Salinger for inspiring the work. Though none of the characters or stories were borrowed, the entire concept is almost directly borrowed from Salinger's book "Nine Stories". He claims to have grown up in a literary home and credits many other authors, but no mention of Salinger. To all the critics that hail this work as original...it isn't!

Women Making Tough, Singular Choices

Please don't be misled by the cliche in the title of the film. A point of the film is that women DON'T have nine lives. They only have one, and that makes their choices far more difficult. The short stories are interesting & well-crafted. The writing and acting performances in the scene with Robin Wright Penn and Jason Isaacs are worth the price of admission.

Holly: "Too late for the phone. Too many misunderstandings. Whoever invented the telephone never had a conversation."

Holly's half-sister: "So not every memory is a bad one?"
Holly: "If every memory was a bad one, how good that would be."

Holly: "Any boyfriends? Girlfriends? You never know where love is gonna show it's ugly face."

Roman: "Each woman is a universe."

Lorna: "Small World."
Lisa: "We make it small when we want to."
Lorna: "Whatdya mean?"
Lisa: "By opening doors instead of closing them."

If you would like to better understand the difficulties of being a woman, or being a person who must choose only one of many great options, this movie is worthwhile.

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Not a full out winner....

I had highs hopes for this movie, and a couple of the viginettes I loved. The 10 minutes with Robin Wright-Penn....now that was worth renting this movie. She portrayed a place perhaps a lot of women have been...going on with your life and *bam* you see an old love and it's all turned inside out and it is like no more than 5 minutes have passed since your old life.

I also loved the last 10 minutes with Glenn Close. Very sad and profound. I cried.

The other ones were only from ok...to so-so to a couple pointless.

You will enjoy it more or less...

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Uneven Collection of Ministories

I am not a fan of this kind of movie so I did not have high expectations except as to the quality of the cast. I was not disappointed in either regard. The stories of the individual women--snippets of their lives--were unrelentingly depressing, presenting moments of insight into some of the less admirable qualities of their personalities or the darker side of their histories. The acting was fine but could only do so much with a set of often rather incomprehensible vignettes that leave you feeling like you need a good laugh.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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