[size=3]"The Nines" really surprised me. I didn't expect much from it, and it turns out to be one of the best, most challenging films of the year. About two-thirds of the way through it, I even sensed that I was watching a masterpiece. Unfortunately the pay-off at the… More
[size=3]"The Nines" really surprised me. I didn't expect much from it, and it turns out to be one of the best, most challenging films of the year. About two-thirds of the way through it, I even sensed that I was watching a masterpiece. Unfortunately the pay-off at the end doesn't quite live up to the brilliant set-up.[/size]
[img]http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/theninesbig1.jpg[/img]
[size=3]When the scintillating loose threads (and there are many) begin to get pulled together like the strands on the lead character's bracelet, I felt the explanations got hokey and too much like a comic book. But a film that has masterpiece moments is still cause for celebration. [/size]
[size=3]Also cause for jubilation is the arrival of writer/director [b]John August[/b], who is here making his directorial debut after penning several screenplays, including the two "Charlie's Angels" movies and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." What an astonishing new talent.[/size]
[size=3][img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/10007829/photo_04.jpg[/img][/size]
[size=3]I would say the same for lead actor [b]Ryan Reynolds[/b], who, while seen before, has never been seen like this. This film will surely transform his career. Reynolds plays several different characters, and he shows a jaw-dropping ability to shed one character's skin and don another's. [/size]
[size=3]The first transition is the most dramatic, when he goes from studly heterosexual actor to gay television director. It's not just the mannerisms that Reynolds masters with uncanny skill. He also brings to life the characters' inner lives in a way that impressed me tremendously. It reminded me of the startling shift that Naomi Watts underwent halfway through "Mulholland Drive." [/size][size=3]I wouldn't say Ryan Reynolds is quite at the level of the greats, but he is one of our major actors. I hope he continues to stretch himself by taking on challenging films like this.[/size]
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[img]http://media.komotv.com/images/070830_The_Nines.jpg[/img]
[size=3][b]Hope Davis[/b], one of our best female actors who sadly has still not gotten the meaty lead role she deserves, provides great support as the mysteriously powerful woman who keeps showing up in different guises to shake things up for the characters that Reynolds plays.[/size]
[size=3]And finally there's newcomer [b]Melissa McCarthy[/b], who is solid but not transcendent. I don't expect we're going to be hearing too much more from her. Her turn as a publicist to Reynolds' superstar actor was very funny. But even there I felt she wasn't inhabiting an inner space that was much beyond that of a television actress. On television I think she'd be superb. On the big screen she doesn't transmit enough.[/size]
[size=3]But to be fair to August, I think he was trying to bring a television aesthetic to the film. I suspect that he's a sophisticated post-modernist, who wants to subvert the paradigm that puts high culture over here and low culture over there. This film on many levels blurs the line between those two. Not only in the casting choices, but also in the content of the film. The second of the film's three segments, for example, is called "Reality Television" and is an almost spooky exploration of the reality-TV phenomenon that has become such a cardinal aspect of postmodern civilization (and which was first imagined in the frighteningly prescient 1976 film "Network," it should be remembered).[/size]
[size=3]At the start of the film, we are introduced to a famous television actor (played by Reynolds) who is experiencing some kind of breakdown. He gets arrested while high on crack and gets put under house arrest, under the care of his publicist (played with robust humor by McCarthy). He is staying in a palatial house in Los Angeles that is owned by another of the publicist's clients. Next door is an attractive woman who just had a baby (Davis).[/size]
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[size=3]Everything seems normal for a while, until Reynolds starts hearing strange noises in the house, indicating that there's someone upstairs. When he goes up, no one is there. He also finds a mysterious note that says "Look for the Nines." The audience is further clued into the fact that something very strange is going on, when McCarthy and Davis seem to know each other and seem to know something about Reynolds that he doesn't realize.[/size]
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[size=3]Reynolds eventually confronts McCarthy forcefully and demands to know what's going on. "You aren't who you think you are," she eventually responds. She goes on, but I won't give away the bizarre things she says. Not too long after her explanation, there's a burst of white light and when it goes down, we see Reynolds and McCarthy as different people. In their new guises, some threads from the previous storyline return, such as the note "Look for the Nines."[/size]
[img]http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0831/csmimg/LNINES_P1.jpg[/img]
[size=3]Things take yet another spooky turn, when McCarthy and Reynolds change characters again and seem to be living inside the TV show that their previous characters were producing.[/size]
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[size=3]At the end all these loose threads are pulled together. As I said, I felt somewhat disappointed by the explanations, but the journey of going through this film was spine-tingling. The plot's mysteries were themselves fascinating, but also satisfying were the subtexts about television's increasingly penetrating power in contemporary life and the increasingly blurry line between art and "reality." [/size]
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[size=3]I also loved the quiet spookiness that August captured (reminiscent of David Lynch) and how he developed a film technique that borrowed some styles from television. The trippiness in the plot, with characters not having stable identities, already causes confusion in the viewer. The semi-TV quality of the film distances the viewer even further, being put off guard because he's not quite sure what he is watching.[/size]
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[size=3]Even when "Mulholland Drive" got supremely murky, we always knew we were watching a film. With "The Nines," it's not clear. Are we watching a film? A TV show? A reality TV show? I found this genre dysphoria to be thrillingly inventive and to be densely packed with interesting ideas about our times and about the future of both film and life.[/size]
