Ninth Gate
Noted director / convicted child rapist Roman Polanski returns to the same territory from whence his classic Rosemary’s Baby sprung with this 1999 film which in some ways plays as a more drawn-out, complex version of Angel Heart, albeit minus that film’s emotional impact. Johnny Depp plays a rather shady dealer in rare valuable books who is hired by a Satanist billionaire (Frank Langella) to track down and authenticate the only other two copies of an occult manifesto that he has recently acquired. Depp takes the assignment (for a large amount of money) and begins to jet all over Europe to find out the facts. Turns out that the text of the book is not all that important as is the illustrations within, which in certain copies is genuine (drawn by Lucifer himself) and others a mere forgery, with the value being that when all the genuine articles are collected, a ritual can be performed that will summon Satan himself and grant the user ultimate world power and knowledge. Polanski continues to have pacing issues here that have marred his other films, namely showing his main character doing trivial things (like study each copy of the book very VERY closely) in scenes that seem to really drag on when much of the revelations can simply be explained through dialogue, especially in the first hour. It can be said though that no one in the film really gives a bad performance here: Depp carries the movie well with his usual understated style, plunging himself deeper and deeper into the mystery until it practically consumes him; Langella as the George Soros-like tycoon is pretty much imposing at all times, even when we merely just hear his voice at the end of a telephone line; the underratedly hot forty-something actress Lena Olin brings some sinister sex appeal to the film as a wealthy widower determined to obtain the book by any means possible; Barbara Jefford brings a bit of dignity as a Baroness also obsessed with the dark arts; James Russo continues his habit of playing the hero’s best friend who comes to a bad end in the early stages of the film; and underage Polanski victim turned wife Emmanuelle Seigner has an almost ethereal presence as the mysterious protector (actually a demon) of Depp’s character who materializes whenever she’s needed and becomes his de facto sidekick (gotta love when she lightly kicks a bad guy in the chest and he goes down like he’s been hit by a truck). Yet, it is her character (and her reasons for protecting Depp) that help show perhaps the movies’s biggest flaw: when Depp realizes his true purpose and must embrace his “destiny”, we’re given no sense of how that knowledge actually affects him, a seemingly normal human being. In fact, he comes off as indifferent more than anything, and it causes the viewer to disconnect from him a bit. The film does boast some fine cinematography from Darius Khondji and an understated score by Wojciech Kilar that help to build the mood and atmosphere of the piece, and the film remains watchable even during the admittedly ridiculous bits, such as Langella’s denouement where he gives a running commentary on how he feels (“Behold, I put my hands in the fire and I feel nothing! Nothing at all! Ah! AHHHHHH!!!!”). Overall, an interesting entry in the devil horror movie sweepstakes, but not nearly as good as Rosemary’s Baby or the other classics…
7/10