Nine Lives (2004)

Excellent

Need the sins of the father be visited upon the son? Not if the terrific- nay, great, little 2005 film, Nine Lives, written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia, is Exhibit A. Garcia is the son of famed Nobel Prize winning magical realist fictionist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, of Love In A Time Of Cholera and One Hundred Years Of Solitude fame. Yet, despite that fame, the father's work, in novels and short fictions, is usually baroque and anomic in narrative, and hollow and superficial in characterization. In this film, his son, however, shows how quickly and deftly a whole life can be sketched and distilled- if not contained, in just ten to twelve real time minutes, doing something his father never did- create complex and compelling characters and situations. He has a human touch in his art that his father has always lacked with his magical realism.
This hour and fifty-two minute film is, in short, antithetical to everything Garcia's father's art stands for. And, as a filmgoer, you should be very thankful for that! I'd never heard of this director, but heard good things about this film. However, I never take such recommendations too seriously, because for every great film like this I am told I need to see pretentious trash, like Crash, this past year's Oscar winner, an ensemble film that only wishes it could have a fraction of the hyper-realism this film does. Prior to this film, Garcia had directed commercials, some television episodes, including The Sopranos, and two prior low budget films- 2001's Ten Tiny Love Stories, and 2000's Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her.
The film that this most reminded me of was Jill Sprecher's great 2001 film, 13 Conversations About One Thing, save that that film wove all its character's plights into a single loose thread, while this film is simply nine short films with a few crossover characters. Jim Jarmusch's recent compilation film of related short subjects, Coffee And Cigarettes, also mines this territory and style, but with nowhere near the success of Nine Lives. Of the nine segments, all named after the lead female character within, for Garcia seems to have a reputation as a woman's filmmaker, seven are brilliant or great, and the two weaker pieces are still good, solid films that experiment with the medium. However, any short story collection that was published, with seven of its nine tales being great would become a classic.... Other films, like Magnolia and Grand Canyon, try this overlapping technique, but they all tie things up at the end, often with all the characters meeting. These films are merely moments that will be big memories in the minds of each of the protagonists, in years to come. The backstories are implied so well, subtly and quickly, that it's not at all difficult to get into each scene within minutes of their starting. Yet, to know everything in those backstories would beg triteness and lengthen the film so that only two, perhaps three, of the stories, could still fit within.
Garcia shows great command of his medium with his objective Chekhovian writing and zero endings, for what could have easily become a New Agey or Chick Flick piece of schlock. Unlike such films as Time Code, this experiment in filmic narrative works, and is a worthy descendant of the filmic experiments that Ingmar Bergman pioneered in the 1960s. It should have been one of the films nominated for an Oscar, along with other underappreciated films like The New World, Match Point, and Shopgirl. But, Hollywood keeps on churning out schlock like Brokeback Mountain and Crash instead, while films like this are shunted aside. Fight back, watch this film, talk about it with others, and make sure that the powerbrokers know that there is a market for such films. It's the only way there will be more of them.
September 15, 2008

Nine of the Best Movies You've Never Seen

What a remarkable oversight we've got here! Imagine if somebody walked up to you and said, "Hey, I just saw this incredible movie! It's about 9 different women, each with their own short story that lasts about 10 minutes. Oh, and each story is told in a single camera shot."

The premise alone was enough for me to check out NINE LIVES, a captivating collection of short dramas with an even more impressive cast. But as neat a concept as this film is, I was instantly hooked from the opening footsteps and expressions of an incarcerated mother. Think of a movie shot very similar to Hitchock's ROPE, except that instead of convenient reel changes after 10 minutes, writer-director Rodrigo Garcia utilitzes incredible techniques and transitions. Garcia has worked on various HBO series, most notably IN TREATMENT. In that show, Garcia again used a similar real-time format to shoot the 30-minute therapy sessions. Like him or not, Garcia has mastered photography and pacing.

The casting is perfect. Each story focuses on a woman struggling with various aspoects of her life. They could be as simple as a mother and daughter having a picnic at a graveyard, or as complicated as woman attending the funeral with a former lover. Then again, those examples are only simple at the outset. You have no idea how each story is going to play out; they remain powerful even after repeat viewings. My personal favorite (and probably most people's, too) is Diana's.

Robin Wright Penn and Jason Isaacs should've won Oscars for their uniterrupted, unedited work. Diana is a pregnant mother just grocery shopping, when she unexpectedly encounters Damian, her former lover. Watching these two actors convey their buried feelings is an absolute joy. Anyone can perform a single emotion, but Isaacs and Wright Penn can deliver multiple subtleties that command encores. This particular segment is some of the finest acting you'll ever see, and I encourage any drama professor to take a good look at it.

I think Diana's story is my favorite because I've experienced some of those conflicts, myself. But the true genius of NINE LIVES is that it will reach audiences on various levels. Any story compilation like this is going to by its very construction. To me, it is both the greatest strength and weakness of Rodrigo Garcia's otherwise-perfect film. Frankly, one or two stories just didn't do much for me. I knew I was watching terrific performances and crafty camerawork, but I didn't know what to take from a couple of Garcia's tales. It's frustrating to watch a 10-minute long scene, with no reprieve - if you're not hooked, you'll just have to wait until Garcia's gone onto the next chapter.

But my confusion could also be a strength to Rodrigo Garcia's genius. Every one of the NINE LIVES is unique and compelling in their own way. Each moviegoer will have his/her own way of relating to the diverse lot of protagonists. Even if your experience isn't the same as mine, NINE LIVES will reach you in ways you've never imagined. July 13, 2008

It was ok

The movie wasn't what I expected, It just dragged and there wasn't a whole lot of important things, well to me anyway. It is kind of boring June 11, 2008

Unintentional comedy.

After a couple of vignettes I was ready to throw in the towel. My wife had had enough and went off to vacuum the house. But the vignette of the deaf sex guy at the funeral redeemed this maudlin pig of a film. It was so over-the-top funny that my sides were splitting. The rest of the film evoked fits of laughter at the self-parody it became. Definitely a candidate for an MST3K party! May 22, 2008

I'll give it five stars..

Definitely ! It's about nine women, nine important moments, glimpses...This movie is very clever in a way that you don't especially see the end of every story, why ? Because it's about life, relationships or family...don't expect finals,it could be 12 minutes of your life, and it looks so realistic, so human, things people live or go through. What I really liked in this movie is that every actor, famous or not, doesn't look/sound like an actor..It could be you, it could be me. I still have a weird aftertaste after seeing this movie... January 2, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...