Nine Lives - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution movie review

'Nine Lives': A masterful ensemble

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Like the proverbial cat, "Nine Lives" jumps from one life to the next, typically arriving for a few emotionally fraught minutes, then high-tailing it somewhere else. Rodrigo Garcia's immensely gratifying movie is made up of nine vignettes, all shot in one continuous take, all centered on women, all lasting between 10 and 14 minutes.

The sensation is somewhat like living in the titular structure in "Howl's Moving Castle." Open one portal and you're in the Los Angeles County Jail, where inmate Sandra (Elpidia Carrillo) swallows her temper and works double shifts to earn the guards' good will and, thereby, a precious few minutes with her daughter.

Magnolia Films

'Nine Lives'

B+

The verdict: A richly compelling collection of short films, featuring a superb cast.

Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Starring: Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Andrew Borba, Elpidia Carrillo, Glenn Close
Run time: 114 minutes
Release date: Oct. 14, 2005
Rating: R for language, brief sexual content and some disturbing images.

On the web
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Open another and you're in a gorgeous apartment, newly purchased by Damian and Lisa (Jason Isaacs and Molly Parker). Their friends Sonia (Holly Hunter) and Martin (Stephen Dillane) come to coo over the new digs, but instead end up airing some dirty laundry induced by their barely stifled envy.

Open a third and Ruth (Sissy Spacek), a middle-aged married woman, is walking to a room in a no-tell motel with Henry (Aidan Quinn), who is not her husband.

And so it goes. Ruth reappears, married to Larry (Ian McShane), who's in a wheelchair due to a degenerative disease. Their decent-to-the-bone daughter Samantha (Amanda Seyfried) heroically runs interference between the two, trying to bring some cheer — or at least a smile — to their tragically withered marriage.

Everywhere you look, another splendid actress (and actor) turns up. Kathy Baker plays a woman with breast cancer, about to undergo surgery and taking out her terror and anger on her ever-patient husband (Joe Mantegna).

Her calm nurse (Lisa Gay Hamilton) has another life — and another personality — in her own segment. Returning to her childhood home to read her father the riot act for past sins, all she can find is her beautiful, sweet sister (Sydney Tamiia Poitier), who generously takes the abuse in their father's stead.

A pregnant Robin Wright Penn has an unexpected run-in with her past when a former flame (Isaacs again) shows up in the frozen food section at the supermarket. (Ah, the inherent treachery of grocery aisles).

Finally, in a truly lovely coda that most directly evokes the penchant for magic realism of Garcia's famous father (Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez), Glenn Close and her capering young daughter (Dakota Fanning) have their annual picnic in a cemetery.

Once you get used to the movie's style — and you do, quickly — the segments seem neither abrupt nor incomplete. Though there are some overlaps, the connective tissue is more emotional than literal (as in, say, "Crash"), yet it's very effective in its own way. Some parts are stronger than others, but as a fleshed-out artistic vision, "Nine Lives" works remarkably well. We edge sideways into these lives and out again. And though we've shared only a few minutes with these characters, it's easy to imagine them going on with whatever they're doing, without us.

The entire ensemble does wonderful work, the men as well as the women. Think of it as a master acting class with a masterful set of teachers.