The Nine Lives is a memorable movie. The powerful images it presents will keep circulating in your mind for some time. However, if I try to dig deeper into the imagery, I find very little what I could call 'profound'. The lives and situations that the film presents are just too mundane.Garcia tells us 9 short stories of ordinary people and he tells it with style. The camera work is stunning and effective at the same time - I read about it before I saw the film - I was afraid it would be a gimmick, but I was really impressed. The acting is probably the most important part of the film. It's what carries the film and makes it so memorable. However the situations themselves, while emotionally charged through the top notch acting and the direction, are just banal. People not getting over old relationships for years, people disagreeing, people living their lives. Some may enjoy watch a sketch of ordinary lives of ordinary people. For me it was simply not interesting enough. I am already living an ordinary life and I don't need to go to the movies to watch people disagreeing and people crying over their ex-es.

Nine Lives is a collection of related short stories wherein each is a snippet from a woman's life and each shot in one uninterrupted episode. Their themes include parent-child relationships, fractured love, adultery, illness, and death.It is a series of overlapping vignettes, each one running about the same length and told in a single, unbroken take, featuring an ensemble cast that includes Sissy Spacek,Glenn Close,Holly Hunter,Lisa Gay Hamilton,Kathy Baker,Amanda Seyfried,Amy Brenneman,Robin Wright Penn and Elpidia Carrillo among many othersIn these episodes, Holly has a brief moment of reverie while confronting the specters of her past in her old neighborhood. Maggie escorts her young daughter Maria to a cemetery as they visit the graves of their family members. Ruth is a married woman contemplating an affair while visiting Henry in his hotel room. Diana unexpectedly runs into an old boyfriend, Damian, while shopping for groceries. Camilla is a hospital patient awaiting surgery for cancer.Samantha is a teenage girl who helps look after her handicapped father Larry. Sandra is a female prison inmate who is expecting a visit from her children. Sonia lashes out at her boyfriend Martin when she finds out he's been cheating on her. And Lorna has an unexpectedly moving encounter with her ex-husband Andrew as she pays her respects to his second wife, who has just passed away. The film is bolstered by a strong and talented cast ensemble and it features many insightful glimpses into the lives of women from different walks of life.The stories are sketches, often without resolution, and while individual segments succeed admirably, taken together the portraits are a fitful match.Also,it is a movie that demands concentration of the viewer to get the rewards the one is willing to pay attention.Although it is far from a perfect film and some episodes are more interesting and more entertaining than the others,it remains a delight to see.

I'm really surprised seeing all these positive reviews for this movie. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like 'these kind of movies'.While I very well can enjoy a good mindless Hollywood action blockbuster like Die Hard 4.0, I like the 'dogma' kind of movies, or 'real-life-as-it-is'-movies just as much, IF they are well made.A good example is Festen (1998): no music, no dramatic camera angles, no special fx, no fancy locations. Just a good story combined with excellent acting and the result is an excellent movie.Is Nine Lives devoid of dramatic camera angles, special fx and fancy locations? Yes. Is it a good movie? I'm glad you asked. The answer is: Absolutely not.First of all, everyone is raving about the acting performances. I'm terribly sorry, but you can act all you want, but if the story and the dialogue is not believable, the acting falls on its behind immediately. And that is exactly the case with Nine Lives.Not once did I have the feeling while watching 'Nine Lives' that I was watching real people having a real conversation. I had the feeling I was watching actors trying to come across as 'real characters' while they were were saying things a 'real person' would never say under the circumstances.You can hardly call it a SPOILER, but there are some dialogue excerpts below. If you think that reading ten lines of (ridiculous) dialogue will ruin your movie experience STOP READING HERE. If you want a good laugh, continue reading.The dialogue was often so ridiculous that it was tragical. You want examples? Plenty of those in 'Nine Lives'.EXAMPLE1:Picture this. Couple visits their filthy rich friends in their new mansion. Woman sees this castle of a house and says to her husband:Woman: I could get used to this (meaning the expensive house). Man: Don't. Woman: Why not? It could be. Man: No. They are who they are and we are who we are. Woman: I like the sound of that -- we are who we are.She likes the sound of that? Her man is acting like a jerk, but she likes the sound of that. Then an elderly couple walks past them holding hands. This is what the woman comes up with:Woman: Look! They are like children after school. They lived through so much. Shared everything. I love you.They are like children after school? And then the most overused cliché lines you ever heard? Finishing with 'I love you'? She says this while her man is being a jerk to her? Yes, very logical, very realistic, NOT. If anything, this kind of dialogue made me wanna strangle some of the characters in the movie for saying these horrible, horrible things.EXAMPLE 2:Elderly mom, dad and younger daughter at a funeral. Dad: I didn't realize Andrew was religious. Mom: It's for comfort. Daughter: It's for strength. Mom: Life is fleeting. Dad and daughter BURST OUT LAUGHING. Yeah, this one-liner cracks me up any time, especially at a funeral! Sorry, I must have missed the joke here.And it goes on and on and on....How about the camera work? Don't even go there. 'Boring' would be a compliment. It supposed to come across as 'realistic'; instead, you miss half of the actors facial expressions (the only thing left to watch in this movie), while half the time the camera is aimed at someone's back or side instead of the face.Conclusion? Well, don't say I didn't warn you! It's a good movie to rent if you want to make out with your date or something during the movie, because you won't even care whether the movie is playing or not after the first five minutes.Overrated and more boring than watching grass grow kinda sums it up.

'9 Lives' is pretty much a collage of stories, 9 stories. Well, not really even stories but just 'a glimpse into the lives of 9 women'. Hardly any of the 'glimpses' appear interesting on the surface at first glance but, hang on, once you look a little closer the tones of the characters are revealed in a very subtle way. Rodrigo Garcia does try to introduce some dark themes and how the women are trying to deal with them. The presentation of the themes is downplayed but effective. What I liked about it was the cinematography. Each 'glimpse' is done with one shot. The scenes are quite well executed and the performances appear authentic. Robin Wright Penn, Elpidia Carillo, Sissy Spacek and Kathy Baker especially stand out. Dakota Fanning seems to be the only child actress available to play little girl roles (she's subtle in this one but still remains annoying). The men in the movie do not have much to do where screen time and space is concerned but Joe Mantegna stands out. I notice that mostly women love this film and I can see why. But, hey, I also love movies about women and I can see why they would be drawn to 'Nine Lives'.