The Ninth Gate has some nice credentials. It stars Johnny Depp, hot off the success of Sleepy Hollow, starring in yet another movie about the supernatural. To direct, none other than Rosemary's Baby's own Roman Polanski. Sounds like a surefire winner, right? So why is this movie being released NOW?
The basic plot is this: A book collector, played by Frank Langella, is building his own personal library of novels which feature The Devil (El Diablo, Satan, Lucifer, Bill Gates) as the protagonist. He has a book which describes how to open up a passageway to hell and commune with Satan. The problem is that there are two other of these books in existence, and he needs to make sure that his is real. To do so, he hires Johnny Depp, a book seller, to find the other two books and attempt to aquire them. Depp's character is a money-hungry swindler, and soon finds out that no amount of money is worth the trouble he gets himself into. Add a mysterious girl whose eyes pulsate with color (she can fly, too) and a few devil worshippers, and it makes for something interesting.
The Ninth Gate is full of mysterious characters. Everyone seems to have their own hidden agenda that they refuse to share with the other characters, or even the audience! One thing I did enjoy about this film is that one of the most intriguing characters is never truly revealed. This character is definitely more than average, yet remains a mystery. I like that.
The Ninth Gate is a very interesting movie that relies on plot twists, rather than overdone special effects, to tell the story. It is also FULL of dark humor and plenty of feel-guilty-for-laughing moments. The cinematography is well-done and it features some nice camera tricks.
This movie runs a little over 2 hours, and you definitely notice. It should have been edited down to about 105 minutes, and cut out a lot of the stuff with people just walking down the street. The music is nice, and it feature a Tim Burton-esque opening credit sequence. I think it will do well at the box office, and turn a profit, but the ending could have been a bit more satisfying.
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