The Nines (2007)

The Nines. Film review. Once in a while, you got a film that is so weird, it transcend the natural common rules in storytelling. The Nines would be one of them. It's disjointed parts (there were three in all) piecing together a rather weird fantasy tale about The Nines. Added to that, John August chooses to weave its tale in a somewhat unnatural storytelling techniques. Combining a daytime soap opera feels, with reality TV flavors, and colors of a serious (or pretended to be) Mystery Theater 3000 episode.

Gary (Ryan Reynolds), is an actor. And a somewhat physcological breakdown was brought down to him that he comitted to an act of arson that put him into a house arrest. Meet Margaret (Melissa McCarthy), a publicist who later acted as Gary's babysitter. A babysitter which can quote Kathy Bates from Rob Reiner's Misery. Now, if you've seen Misery (or read it), you wouldn't want such babysitter. Gary's next-door neighbour, Susan (Hope Davis) is an attractive Canadian. Now, that's how much i could tell you about this film and that's was just the first part. It is that weird, that to really explained it fully in a span of an article standard to this blog won't be sufficient.

I must say, that the film doesn't try to be all mysterious. It doesn't try to solve a puzzle, nor is it to offer an answer or an explanation. For all it's haughty theme and mission, i found that this film was merely telling a story. And given the nature of its story (in simple words, they are rather metaphysic. With an inspiration that probably came from the world shaped by the Internet and a larger portion of John August's personal professional life as a screenwriter), it won't appeal to many. Once the curiousity died away, many would simply changed a channel.

Ryan Reynolds in my opinion is one of the very few good young actors working today. I had seen three of his films in a relatively short time span, and his versatility was curiously deserved more attention in the future. In this film, he took three roles at once as a popular actor uncomfortable with him being a spotlight, manly, handsome, but unsecure, as a writer, smart, composed, timid, but confident, and pretty much as himself, reckless, with all the right ingredients for a young leading dude which reminds me a lot to his role in The Amytiville Horror. He was at ease in it. Easily switching colors like a chameleon. Melissa McCarthy was in her usual self as per seen in Gilmore Girls. Hope Davis wasn't had as much as challenge as Ryan and frankly, she is forgettable. And Elle Fanning (Dakota's little sister) though has a limited screen time was creepingly cute.

Further, i would say that this film is nothing more than a 100 minutes wasting away in a drain for i had no revelation, no sense of relief, or anything for that matter. Well, probably it wasn't my cup of coffee, or most likely, that i wasn't curious enough about "the Nines" that after a while, i stop caring, and when the Nines was actually "revealed" (notice the quote mark), rather than "ooh"-ing or "aah"-ing in an understanding, i checked my watch to see how much the time has gone by, or was it still enough time to write this article down and sit through another film, or not.

My rating: *1/2 / **** - Just digging my computer to see is there any 'old' article i hadn't yet published. This is one of them.