Release Date:
03/10/2000
Watching The Ninth Gate is like building a jigsaw puzzle piece by piece, only to have Mom throw it all out when youre one piece away from finishing. Roman Polanski has concocted a pretty intriguing mystery, but someone forgot to tell him that movies need endings.
Book broker Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) makes his living locating rare volumes for insanely wealthy collectors. Hes hired by insanely wealthy Boris Balkan (Frank Langellaone step away from playing Dracula again, but more on that later) to find an ancient Satanic text. (Corsos sort of like Indiana Jones, if hed been a librarian instead of a archaeologist.) He goes after the book and meets a string of bizarro characters straight out of a cheesy Hammer horror filmprimarily a serpentine Lena Olin (playing a shady Frenchwoman) and a strangely upbeat Emmanuelle Seigner (playing a shady Frenchwoman). It all boils down to endless shots of Depp smoking cigarettes and staring intently at something off-screennot unlike his recent Charlie Rose interview.
The most frustrating thing about The Ninth Gate is that its not all bad. In fact, as pieces of the mystery begin falling into place, the film gets pretty engrossing. Then it all goes to hell, but not in the way youre thinking. By the time Corso tracks Balkan to his castle in France, you wouldnt be surprised if Balkan emerged wearing a cape and sporting rubber fangs (this is not helped at all by the music, which seems to be lifted from every low-budget horror film youve ever wasted a Sunday afternoon watching on TNT). All the buildup is discarded in favor of symbolism thats either terribly ham-fisted (Balkans security code is 666, cause hes eeeee-vil) or completely confusing (Seigners character wears Asics gel sneakers, cause shes eeeee-vilum, we guess). Its difficult to spoil the ending, because it makes absolutely no sense. Corso returns to the smoldering ruins of Balkans castle to discover nothing! Thats it. Roll credits. Talk about movie blue balls. Does Corso inherit a castle? Is the Satanic text just a way for Lucifer to sell real estate? Actually, that could be it. If evil is all about property, then Donald Trump is making a whole lot more sense.
Book broker Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) makes his living locating rare volumes for insanely wealthy collectors. Hes hired by insanely wealthy Boris Balkan (Frank Langellaone step away from playing Dracula again, but more on that later) to find an ancient Satanic text. (Corsos sort of like Indiana Jones, if hed been a librarian instead of a archaeologist.) He goes after the book and meets a string of bizarro characters straight out of a cheesy Hammer horror filmprimarily a serpentine Lena Olin (playing a shady Frenchwoman) and a strangely upbeat Emmanuelle Seigner (playing a shady Frenchwoman). It all boils down to endless shots of Depp smoking cigarettes and staring intently at something off-screennot unlike his recent Charlie Rose interview.
The most frustrating thing about The Ninth Gate is that its not all bad. In fact, as pieces of the mystery begin falling into place, the film gets pretty engrossing. Then it all goes to hell, but not in the way youre thinking. By the time Corso tracks Balkan to his castle in France, you wouldnt be surprised if Balkan emerged wearing a cape and sporting rubber fangs (this is not helped at all by the music, which seems to be lifted from every low-budget horror film youve ever wasted a Sunday afternoon watching on TNT). All the buildup is discarded in favor of symbolism thats either terribly ham-fisted (Balkans security code is 666, cause hes eeeee-vil) or completely confusing (Seigners character wears Asics gel sneakers, cause shes eeeee-vilum, we guess). Its difficult to spoil the ending, because it makes absolutely no sense. Corso returns to the smoldering ruins of Balkans castle to discover nothing! Thats it. Roll credits. Talk about movie blue balls. Does Corso inherit a castle? Is the Satanic text just a way for Lucifer to sell real estate? Actually, that could be it. If evil is all about property, then Donald Trump is making a whole lot more sense.