Nine Months

Nine Months is a 1995 American romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Chris Columbus. It stars Hugh Grant, Julianne Moore, Tom Arnold, Joan Cusack, Jeff Goldblum, and Robin Williams. The film is a remake of the French film Neuf mois and served as Grant's first US starring role. It was filmed on location in the San Francisco Bay Area. The original music score was composed by Hans Zimmer.

Nine Months
Theatrical release poster
Directed byChris Columbus
Produced byMichael Barnathan
Anne François
Mark Radcliffe
Chris Columbus
Screenplay byPatrick Braoudé
Chris Columbus
Story byPatrick Braoudé
Daniel Russo
Based onNeuf mois
1994 French film
by Patrick Braoudé
Starring
Music byHans Zimmer
CinematographyDonald McAlpine
Edited byRaja Gosnell
Stephen E. Rivkin
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • July 14, 1995 (1995-07-14)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$138.5 million[1]

Plot

Child psychologist Samuel Faulkner has an ideal romance with ballet teacher Rebecca Taylor. Rebecca is thinking about marriage and children. Samuel is against the idea of marriage as he is happy with how things are between them. This all changes when Rebecca declares she is pregnant, and when questioned by Samuel about her birth control she replies birth control is only 97% effective.

Samuel's fears mount due to his encounters with overbearing couple Marty and Gail Dwyer and their unruly daughters, as well as the confusing advice he gets from Sean, his perpetually single artist friend and Gail's brother. Samuel is confused and unsure about what to do. Feeling neglected, Rebecca leaves him and moves in with Marty and Gail. Samuel tries to contact her but she does not respond.

When a girl makes a move on Samuel, he declines, saying he's not ready to move on yet. When he sees an ultrasound of his soon-to-be-born son, he decides that it is time to take responsibility before it is too late. He sells his Porsche 911, buys a family SUV, and gets back together with Rebecca. They then marry and have their baby boy together.

Cast

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 26% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The site's consensus states: "Nine Months finds writer-director Chris Columbus playing to his worst comedic instincts -- and relying far too heavily on the trademark tics of his miscast leading man."[2] On Metacritic the film has a score of 47% based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[3] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A- on scale of A to F.[4]

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, saying, "Nine Months is one of those movies where the outcome is abundantly clear to everyone but the hero, who remains in the hapless position of playing dumb because, if he didn't, there wouldn't be a plot."[5] Todd McCarthy of Variety called it "An exceedingly safe and conventional Chris Columbus comedy."[6]

Box office

The movie debuted at #3 at the box office behind Apollo 13 and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory with $12.5 million in its opening weekend.[7] Nine Months went on to gross $138.5 million worldwide.

Hugh Grant's opinion

Grant has spoken disparagingly of his performance in Nine Months, stating in an interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation that: "I really ruined it. And it was entirely my fault. I panicked, it was such a big jump up from what I'd been paid before to what they were offering me. And the scale was inhuman to my standards, you know the scale of the production, 20th Century Fox, the whole thing. And I just tried much too hard, and you know I forgot to do basic acting things, like mean it. So I pulled faces and overacted, it was a shocker."[8]

On another occasion, he referred to director Chris Columbus as a "genius" and his "brilliant" co-stars, but further commented: "You know, having been paid ₤20,000 or whatever it was, to do Four Weddings and a Funeral, if you're suddenly paid millions, you think well I better ramp up my performance by 200 times. But all that means is that you overact grotesquely, which is what I did. So I'm always very apologetic to those people."[9]

Soundtrack

References
  1. "Nine Months". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  2. "Nine Months (1995)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  3. "Nine Months". Metacritic.
  4. "NINE MONTHS (1995) A-". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  5. Ebert, Roger (1995-07-12). "Nine Months". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
  6. McCarthy, Todd (10 July 1995). "Nine Months". Variety.
  7. Dutka, Elaine (1995-07-18). "Weekend Box Office : 'Under Siege' Opens in No. 2 Spot". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-01-13.
  8. SAG-AFTRA Foundation (2016-08-16). Conversations with Hugh Grant. YouTube. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  9. BAFTA New York (2016-09-06). Hugh Grant in Conversation BAFTA New York (video). BAFTA New York. Retrieved 2018-06-27 – via YouTube.
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