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"Nothing is more reliable than a man whose loyalties can be bought with hard cash."
I picked up a copy of The Ninth Gate and viewed it solely for the presence of Johnny Depp.
Depp is an accomplished actor whom I admire. He always chooses his film roles with great care; hence I was ambitious to see this one.
Roman Polanski is also an acclaimed director who has been at the helm of many classic films. Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby are among his best work. For this genre, Polanski was in his element; a demons and angels oriented horror film with strong themes of satanic rituals and gothic mystery.
Dean Corso (Depp) is a cynical, morally corrupt rare book hunter with a strong reputation for recovering rare books. Corso soon becomes involved with demonologist Boris Balkan (Langella). Balkan is a man who owns one of the three surviving copies of a piece of text supposedly written by the devil several centuries ago. He pays Corso to seek out the final two surviving copies of this piece of text in order to verify which copy is genuine.
During Corso's travels he realises that he is involved in a conspiracy that also involves a group of enigmatic individuals who are leaving many people dead.
The plot is original; and only someone like Polanski would agree to get behind the camera on this sort of a project. The atmosphere is chilling and sometimes terrifying. This is to be expected in a Polanski horror movie. But the final 5 minutes destroy the whole experience. It was so sudden, so weird, so unexpected. It offers no explanation to the events that have just unfolded, instead completely losing the plot and ending it with some weird nonsensical religious mumbo jumbo that doesn't make a lick of sense. I was none the wiser as to what was occurring during those final minutes. I wish Polanski hacked this atrocious ending out of the movie because it would have done some good.
There are no surprises in saying that Johnny Depp's performance was incredible. Although working with some shockingly bad material towards the ending he never breaks focus; instead continuing the meek, confused, almost clueless character that he was when the film opened. Depp never plays the same kind of character twice. This is a great career move because therefore he is never typecast. If he played the same character for most of his movies then the concept of a book detective would confuse the audience. He skilfully proves accomplished when any role is thrown in his direction. Depp looked so adorable during some of his scenes.
Direction from Roman Polanski was exceptional. For scenes that required it, Polanski was very artistic and created an atmosphere that is both moody and eerie. He presented the audience with an encyclopaedic arrangement of filming techniques, both old and new, assembled by a master of his craft.
The build up to the disappointing climax was slow but intriguing. Each new clue leaves us guessing until the end when all is revealed (although not conclusively).
The Ninth Gate was a good vehicle for Johnny Depp to nail yet another character. It's a good thriller that is vastly flawed, albeit entertaining. Worth seeing for Depp aficionados.
7/10
