Spent Sunday morning at a screening of Rob Marshall's screen adaptation of Nine, the Broadway musical based on Federico Fellini's 8 1/2. We saw it at 10 in theater 6 of Westshore 14. I'll give the movie about a 7.

Nine doesn't open until Christmas Day, so I'll let the Christmas Eve review in Weekend speak later for itself. But I can't fight the feeling (a Journey nod for the Stuck in the 80s crowd) that my chief gripe with Marshall's movie is casting two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood) the sexually rambunctious, creatively blocked movie director at the center of the story.

Maybe the problem is that on Saturday I watched a chunk of Antonio Banderas' sexy, impassioned musical performance in Evita (a guilty pleasure until Madonna/Eva Peron gets sick). Banderas also starred in the revival of Nine on Broadway after the late Raul Julia originated the musical role. I have no idea why Marshall didn't sign him up for the movie version.

There's something wrong when Day-Lewis' performance brings back memories of watching classily wooden French star Yves Montand slurring Come Back to Me to Barbra Streisand in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. You get a 30-second dose of it around the 2:30 mark of the trailer for the 1970 release posted above.

Enjoy! (Maybe.)