On paper, this movie has all the right ingredients. Daniel Day-Lewis ? who is very picky when it comes to film roles ? stars in this adaptation of Federico Fellini's '8?', and is supported by a stellar female cast.

I love musical films. I love Daniel Day-Lewis. And with Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman and Judi Dench all on board, I expected so much more from 'Nine'.

So much that I didn't get.

'Nine' is directed by Rob Marshall, the man behind the hit film 'Chicago' ? and you can definitely see the similarities. An all-star cast, a period film harking back to a "golden era" and the blur between fantasy and reality.

The film tells the story of Guido Contini, a world-famous Italian filmmaker in the 1960s who suffering a personal and professional crisis as he tries to juggle his marriage, his career and his mistresses.

With such a massive cast of superstars ? including Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz and screen legend Sophia Loren ? it's always going to be a gargantuan task to balance them all. And even though Daniel Day-Lewis is a phenomenal actor, even he couldn't make the characters gel. The film seemed clumsily put together, and is at times chaotic and disorganised.

The storyline was a little disappointing. It alternated between being high-energy musical numbers and long sequences of "dead water" ? it's as if the script writers weren't really sure themselves what they wanted from this movie.

The actresses play cameo roles in a film which could have made so much more use of their talents. The usually delightful Nicole Kidman seemed that she didn't really want to be there, Julie Dench had some serious issues with her accent (What was she? French? English? I still don't know), and Fergie's part seemed more like a music video or a random interlude than anything else.

And I have no idea why Penelope Cruz was nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actress over Marion Cotillard. She was painful, at best. Cotillard was ? as usual ? a delight, and was by a country mile the best performance of the bunch.

However, the movie wasn't all bad. The film was finely edited to bring the stage to the silver screen ? and it seems that Marshall really did learn from 'Chicago'. The movie is fantastically choreographed and for the majority of the musical numbers the stars really do perform their hearts out. Daniel Day-Lewis' opening vocal number is high-energy and a great way to kick off, Marion Cotillard's an absolute heartbreaker and Kate Hudson gives the performance of her life for her musical number (who knew?).

It's beautifully filmed, very sexy and really does capture the enhanced spirit of the golden age of Italian cinema.

It's highly entertainming and a great trip to the cinema ? if you can ignore some of the lazy performances.