Nine Lives

24 December 2018

Nine Lives

• Director: Rodrigo Garcia
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Elpidis Carillo, Miguel Sandoval, Robin Wright, Jason Isaacs, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Holly Hunter, Stephen Dillane, Molly Parker, Amanda Seyfried, Sissy Spacek, Amy Brenneman, Mary Kay Place, Rebecca Tilney, William Fichtner, Aidan Quinn, Kathy Baker, Joe Mategna, Glenn Close, Dakota Fanning
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in: You know what? There’s just too many. This time you get to do your own research.
• Why? It sounded good.
• Seen: 23 December 2018

             Sandra: LA County Jail. Trying to keep her head down. Not possible.

       Diana: Supermarket. An awkward meeting with an old lover. Painful.

       Holly: Comes home to confront her father over lifelong conflicts. If she could only hate him completely.

       Sonia: With her husband visiting their best friends in their swank apartment but it’s not a pleasant meeting.

       Samantha: Her dad in a wheelchair, her mother is tired. She wanders back and forth from one to the other.

       Lorna: At the funeral of the wife of her ex-husband Andrew. Lorna and Andrew have sex in another room.

       Ruth: On her way to a motel room with her lover. She is very nervous. She watches a woman being arrested for having escaped from the LA county jail.

       Camille: Waiting in a hospital bed to have a mastectomy. She is very angry. Her husband is with her.

       Maggie: Walking through a cemetery with her young daughter. They have a picnic and play. Maggie leaves the cemetery alone.

       The stories interweave. A character from one story shows up in another. Powerful stories, powerful acting. But just as I prefer novels to short stories, I prefer feature length films to vignettes. Otherwise this would have got full points.

4 * of 5