DAKOTA > FILMS > NINE LIVES

» Movie Details
Release Date: October 14th, 2005
Director: Rodrigo García
Writer: Rodrigo García
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Kathy Baker, Glenn Close, Stephen Dillane, Holly Hunter, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Ian McShane , Molly Parker, Robin Wright Penn, Mary Kay Place, Aidan Quinn, Miguel Sandoval, Sissy Spacek
Tag Line: Every life has a story. And every story has a life of its own
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 112 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for language, brief sexual content and some disturbing images
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Box Office: $148,181 (total)
DVD Release: February 14, 2006
Official Website: Nine Lives
Trailer: Check here
Quotes: Not Available

» Synopsis
Director Rodrigo Garcia has become a master of short film anthologies, with this, his third venture into the genre. His previous work in this field--THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER (which stitched together five separate stories) and TEN TINY LOVE STORIES (comprised of ten tales)--was shot in 2001, and featured predominantly female casts. The vignettes that make up NINE LIVES follow in the same vein, with Garcia taking brief dips into the lives of various women who are all floundering in relationships with important people in their lives. An all-star cast helps Garcia achieve his vision, and a highly skilled team behind the camera ensures that the action is perfectly executed, as each story is shot in just one single take.

Garcia doesn't construct conventional narratives for his stories, he just drops viewers into situations, then pulls them out before any conclusions are reached. Some of the women we are exposed to are Robin Wright Penn, who plays a pregnant woman running into a former lover in a supermarket, resulting in a bout of anguish and self doubt; Ruth (Sissy Spacek), a woman caught up in an affair at a seedy motel; and Holly Hunter, playing a woman alarmed at her boyfriend's antisocial behavior. The stories are thrilling in their inconclusiveness, with Garcia leaving plenty of question marks about where these women are heading with their lives. Indeed, the first story in the film ends just as it seems to be starting, with prison inmate Sandra (Elpida Carrillo) letting out a howling, primal scream as she is pulled away from her daughter by prison guards, leaving the audience hanging in midair as the next story immediately begins. A breathtaking work that plays beautifully with the cinematic medium, NINE LIVES is an exhausting and demanding piece of work.

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» Dakota on the Movie
Not Available

» Dakota's Reviews
" In the final act Garcia gives us Maggie (Glenn Close) and her daughter Maria ( Dakota Fanning ), engrossed in easy and tender conversation during a graveside picnic. Both actors inhabit and imbue the scene with understated grace."
- by Carolyn Arends / October 14, 2005 / Christianity Today {+More}

» Links
. IMDB Nine Lives Page

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