Nine

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Nine's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Nine completed by The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 27 January 2010.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

ACCM review

This review of the movie Nine contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Nine is a vibrant musical story in which the main character is a famous Italian Movie Director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis). Contini has reached a midlife crisis trying to balance the relationships he has with various women, including his wife Luisa (Marion Cottilard), his mistress Carla (Penelope Cruz), his leading-lady Claudia (Nicole Kidman), his mother (Sophia Loren) and others, with his artistic creativity. Contini finds himself unable to produce a script for his latest movie and finding little support from those around him, becomes increasingly despairing.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Marital infidelity

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including

• The young Guido is caned by a priest for paying a woman to dance for him and his friends.
• Carla takes an overdose and nearly kills herself.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Apart from the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are no scenes in this movie that are likely to scare or disturb children under the age of eight.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

No further scenes of concern

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including

• Carla tells Guido she’ll wait for him ‘with her legs open’.
• Girls in skimpy clothing dancing very provocatively
• Carla touches her body all over while she dances
• Louisa does a strip tease dance while male dancers handle her body

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some partial nudity and skimpy clothing in this movie.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• drinking and smoking throughout the movie
  

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• for Christ’s sake
• arse

The movie's message

Nine is a lively and colourful musical adapted from a stage show, full of wonderfully choreographed dance sequences. It contains a stellar cast and some surprising performances.

The main messages from this movie are about confronting the consequences of living a self-indulgent and arrogant lifestyle.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the real-life consequences of infidelity and having several lovers in your life.