the key scene in rodrigo garcia nine life come when sissy spacek and hide away in a hotel room where she be carry on an affair with aiden quinn and find a nature documentary on television and at which point quinn note the contrivance of such thing disparate footage be edit into one scene and predator and prey be throw together in order to capture the moment all to force connection where none actually exist . character in the nine short that make up this film occasionally spill over into each others story and but none of them ever seem to really connect . a woman prepare for a violent confrontation with her abusive father be later see work in a hospital room where another woman be prepare for a mastectomy . a man who run into an old girlfriend in a supermarket and see how his life should have be late host and with his current wife and a dinner party for an unhappy couple . garcia arrange some of his character in front of each other and but none of the subsequent story ever really build on what come before . garcia first film and the wonderful and overlooked thing you can tell just by look at her and also have a short story structure and overlap character and but there be few of them and they have a lot more room to breathe and grow . the gimmicky premise of nine life and that each of it nine story be tell in a single and unbroken take in real time and never allow the film to build up any real dramatic tension or momentum . it also a fairly visually ugly movie . interior shot be often murky and hard to watch and while other scene particularly one where a girl walk back and forth between room to talk to her uncommunicative parent be render annoying by the camera work . give that this be garcia third film and that he have a respectable history of direct for television and the direction in this film be rather surprisingly amateurish . like fellow filmmaker child of a great writer rebecca miller and garcia ( son of gabriel garcia marquez ) be focus on the writing and character aspect of his film often to the detriment of the film make one . individual scene be touch and even affect . i do like jason issacs kiss robin wright penn pregnant belly . and joe mantegna whisper lovingly to his wife a she slip into pre surgery sedation . and sissy spacek steal a few happy moment away from her life with aiden quinn before bring back to it with a phone call from her daughter . but the film ( unlike thing you can tell just by look at her ) feel more like an exercise than actual drama . we be just watch people act .