SnoopyStyle Nine women struggle in their lives. Volatile Sandra (Elpidia Carrillo) is in LA County Jail. She blows up when her young daughter visits and the phone is broken. Pregnant Diana (Robin Wright Penn) meets former lover Damian (Jason Isaacs) at a supermarket. Holly (Lisa Gay Hamilton) confronts her abusive stepfather. Couple Sonia (Holly Hunter) and Martin (Stephen Dillane) have a fight at the home of their friends Lisa (Molly Parker) and Damian (Jason Isaacs). Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) is trying to cope with her parents Ruth (Sissy Spacek) and sickly Larry (Ian McShane) who are not getting along. Ruth (Sissy Spacek) has an affair with drunken widower Henry (Aidan Quinn). Divorced Lorna (Amy Brenneman) deals with ex-husband Andrew (William Fichtner) during his second wife's funeral. Camille (Kathy Baker) is getting breast surgery for cancer while waiting with her husband Richard (Joe Mantegna). Maggie (Glenn Close) has a picnic with her daughter Maria (Dakota Fanning) in the cemetery.This is written and directed by Rodrigo García. As with other multi-story movies, there are some vignettes that I love more than others. Sandra in prison is riveting. None of the stories are anything I dislike. Every story has something interesting. These are a lot of great actresses.

ERL edittmer-1, you are right on target about the final vignette with Glenn Close and Dakota Fanning. If one doesn't get the point that Close is visiting her own daughter's grave, then the whole segment doesn't make too much sense. The three clues I noticed that showed this was what the filmmaker intended: 1) Close casually uses the word "f*cking" when talking to Fanning, which is inconsistent with being the kind of nurturing parent she obviously was. Fanning responds to this word with indifference, which would also be inconsistent with the precociousness her character shows throughout the scene--if this were really happening, the child would have no doubt reacted to it and called out her mother for using such language. 2) As another poster pointed out, at her age, Close seems like she should be the child's grandmother rather than mother. This is because the child died many years ago. Close's character has aged, but her memory of her child is frozen at the time when she died. 3) Close leaves the grave alone, no child in sight.Once I realized what happened--my wife instantly pointed it out to me as we watched, the poignancy of this part of the film really hit me. I don't know how many times I could re-watch it, because the pain and tragedy evoked by it is too much to take, but it is extremely well done and a great achievement by the filmmaker.

yanivli one who want to see what it's mean "clean acting art" has to see this movie. I am sure that this movie will be one of the best example of how close can the cinema be to the theater (in the good aspect). the movie bring to us nine short stories about women in relation to their daughters, old lovers, fathers, and husbands. the power of this movie coming from the quality of the actresses who play their rules so naturally, so you believe that it is a real their own story. there is no different the age of the actress: all of them present great acting skills, and show us all the personal feeling woman have, until the most intimal senses they feel. I have notice that the common mood this movie show is sadness about the female world. there is no one joke in the film neither a relief thought about the price they have to pay in our world.

marissas75 "Nine Lives" is a pretty unusual movie: nine slices of life, each a single shot, and each focusing on a female character. The stories are all quiet, everyday dramas, often ending before they achieve a complete resolution, and while a few of the themes are edgy, they're never treated with sensationalism. It's the polar opposite of the flashy, jokey, commercial Hollywood blockbuster.Though characters reappear from one vignette to the other, these stories are connected more by theme than by character. There's an obvious theme about the roles that women play-- mother, daughter, sister, wife, etc.--and how these roles can conflict with one another and cause distress. In the first three stories, the main female character gets so distraught that she ends up crying--though a good challenge for actresses, this seems to reinforce stereotypes that women are weepy. Luckily, some of the other women are more resilient.Also running throughout is a theme about the impossibility of communication, even between loved ones. Sometimes this theme is dramatized in subtle, effective ways, such as an imprisoned woman talking through glass when her daughter visits, or a teenage girl mediating between her parents. Other times this seems more contrived, especially the decision to make one character's ex-husband a deaf man who uses sign language.Because of the recurring characters, "Nine Lives" is also one of those recent Los Angeles ensemble movies about how everyone is connected. (e.g. "Crash," "Magnolia.") Here the connections are clever but not especially profound. Having a puzzle like this to solve while watching the film helps hold your interest, but the puzzle feels incomplete. I was waiting for everything to come together at the end, but the last vignette, featuring Glenn Close and Dakota Fanning in a cemetery, has no characters from the other stories in it. Thematically speaking, though, it's not a bad way to end the movie.Ultimately, "Nine Lives" shows that there are just as many pitfalls as pleasures in its unique style of film-making. It's wonderful to be reminded of the potential of long takes, how fluidly cameras can move nowadays and how well talented actors can sustain their performances. But while a typical movie would cut around the most mundane parts of life--people walking from one place to another, for example--"Nine Lives" has no choice but to show this. I also wished for more striking visual imagery or close-ups of the actors' performances, but due to these technical limitations, most of the movie is in medium or long shot.Some people would claim that "Nine Lives" is inherently a great movie because it's not flashy or funny or commercial. But after seeing it, appreciating its technical qualities but feeling lukewarm about its overall effect, I've come to realize that flashiness is not always a bad thing. This is a movie that sorely needs some zest and energy in order to feel truly alive.