Greetings AICN, MiraJeff here with a look at John August's directorial debut, The Nines.
It's funny, I was conversing with Shoot 'Em Up producer Don Murphy on Anne Thompson's blog a while back and the question arose - should a critic be allowed to
review a film if he/she doesn't "get" it. I believe the answer is yes, and that the lack of understanding belongs in the review because if a critic, who has a fair amount of cinematic intelligence, doesn't understand the picture, then it's not only possible, but probable that the average viewer won't "get" the film either. Which leads us back to The Nines, a movie that only God Himself could make heads or tails of. Literally.
To say I didn't "get" The Nines would be a severe understatement. That's because The Nines is nearly incomprehensible. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy it while I watched it. It is built around a potentially brilliant concept that struggles mightily with its own execution. It's one of those frustrating movies that you're confused by throughout, but go along with in the hopes of being presented a final reveal that will make sense of the picture preceding it. Alas, there are no easy answers in The Nines. In fact, the press notes even state that "The Nines is like a riddle where the answer is the question: "How does it all add up?"" I couldn't describe it any better myself because the truth is, it doesn't…. at all. You should ask yourself if that even sounds like a movie you'd be interested in watching? It's okay if you find yourself saying yes, because the premise is certainly intriguing, but if every movie you watched billed itself as a riddle that collapses on itself, you'd go batshit insane in a very short period of time. Speaking of which, perhaps it’s no coincidence that the film’s running time is listed at 99 minutes.
The Nines is sort of what I hope Richard Kelly's Southland Tales will turn out to be like; A metaphysical journey into the surreal. The narrative is broken up into three short films; The Prisoner, Reality Television and Knowing, which is funny in and of itself considering Kelly is or was developing a film with the same title.
In the first segment, Ryan Reynolds plays Gary, an actor on a top-rated TV show called Crim9 Lab, and no, that is not a typo. He gathers a bunch of his ex-girlfriend's closing and burns it, inadvertently burning his own house down in the process before going on a liquor-fueled crack binge that ends in a car crash. Sentenced to house arrest, which he serves in someone else's Beverly Hills mansion (August's actual home in Highland Park), Gary's agency sends Margaret (Melissa McCarthy), a professional babysitter of sorts, to look after him. With nothing but time to kill, Gary hangs out with Margaret and an aggressive next-door neighbor (Hope Davis). He also starts to get creepy phone calls with a whispery voice on the other end repeating "nine" over and over again like something out of a bad German film. Reynolds and McCarthy make a great, if unlikely onscreen duo and they completely sell their characters' blossoming friendship but it's clear that something is amiss and Margaret knows more than she is letting on. When Gary finally dares to step outside his house arrest boundaries, a big CGI-riddled what-the-fuck moment ensues.
The press notes suggest the second segment was born out of a nervous breakdown August suffered in 2000. Playing a thinly veiled version of August himself, Reynolds stars as Gavin, a successful screenwriter-producer who actually owned the house Gary was staying in. Gavin is at work on a pilot called Knowing that he wrote specifically for his best friend Melissa McCarthy, who more or less plays herself. In real life, August and McCarthy are good friends and enjoy a similar relationship. Davis plays a network executive who screws Gavin over and demands he recast Melissa's role for a younger, cuter actress the network has been courting for quite some time. The whole pilot production process is presented as an episode of a fictional reality show called "Behind the Screen" and closely mirrors August's own frustrating experiences in the world of television, where everyone harbors their own secret agendas. Even though I was very interested in this second segment, I don’t think its tone fit with the rest of the movie and I think the average viewer will find it extremely self-indulgent. The behind-the-scenes of the entertainment business is never as interesting as the people who work in the entertainment business find it. See the deserved cancellation of Studio 60 and the current creative funk Entourage is stuck in as examples. The second act ends in a quasi-major twist that leads into the third and least interesting segment, in which Reynolds plays a semi-famous videogame designer named Gabriel whose car battery dies while he's lost in the woods with his wife (McCarthy) and mute daughter (Elle Fanning). Their perilous situation closely mirrors the pilot Gavin was developing. Gabriel goes off to search for help, which he finds in the form of a hiker (Davis) who at first doesn't trust him, but then turns out to be the one who shouldn't be trusted.
What happens after that is anyone's guess. I'm not going to allude to the final scene or try and make sense of the surreal ending. I hesitate to say it's not worth the effort to try, because that would be dismissing August's rather ingenious attempt to play mind games with his audience, but I honestly tried to engage with the story and with whatever August was trying to say, but the message is bafflingly unclear, and ultimately, it falls on deaf ears.
Walking out of the theater, all I could say was 'what the fuck was that,' to which a pair of fellow critics replied, 'I have absolutely no idea.' I really wish I could recommend this movie but it's a race without a finish line, a tie game without an overtime. I have no clue what August was trying to say with this piece and frankly, don't care enough to look any deeper for answers that are buried beneath a bunch of mysterious existential psychobabble. The film explores the relationship between the creator and his creation, so is Reynolds playing God? Are The Nines enlightened human beings who live on a higher plane of existence? Does August think of himself as a Nine? Do we all have a little bit of Nine in us? I have no idea, but I'm pretty happy on this plane of existence with the rest of you, and if that makes me an eight then so be it. Apparently, August explains some of the film's mysteries on his blog but movies aren't designed to be watched with the director's audio commentary. You know the old rule, show don't tell? Well August doesn't leave himself any choice but to tell because the show questions all of reality.
As it so happens, I'm actually a big fan of most of August's work. Go and Charlie's Angels are both very good for what they are and Big Fish in particular stood out and hit me on an emotional level. But ever since re-upping for that awful Angels sequel, he seems like he's been mired in a creative funk. I found the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake disappointing, as well as The Corpse Bride, which was as lifeless as its title character. I'm encouraged by early reports of Hancock, the film he co-wrote with director Peter Berg that stars Will Smith as an alcoholic superhero with a PR crisis. A return to big-budget studio pictures may be exactly what August needs, especially as he prepares to rewrite Brian Goluboff's Shazam! script. But The Nines is truly a case of an A-list screenwriter being given the opportunity to make one for himself, without any regard for the audience that has to pay to see his murky vision. And it'd be one thing if August simply wrote the script, but the fact that he directed The Nines means and blame falls squarely on his shoulders. I don’t need my movies spelled out for me but answers aren’t necessarily a bad thing.
Before I sign off, it is worth noting that the three lead performances are all very good, especially Reynolds who segues nicely from comedy to drama. I've always been a fan of his and it's nice to see him challenge himself as an actor. Hopefully he'll balance his studio films with smaller indie films like this one... well maybe not necessarily like this one, but you know what I mean. Even though he's been around for a while, I think Reynolds still has a lot of potential. The Nines shows a side of him that we've never seen before and he delivers on the promise shown in his earlier comedic efforts, but between this and Smokin' Aces, it has not been a very good year for the guy. He's still looking for that one role to define him as an actor, and dare I say, I think he'd make a hell of a serial killer if some producer had the balls to make him shave his head and give him a property like American Psycho to work with. Just look at the career Christian Bale's made out of that breakout role. You watch... we haven't heard the last of Reynolds as far as serious drama is concerned. He has two movies locked and loaded, Chaos Theory and Definitely Maybe, and he'll star in the upcoming Julia Roberts film Fireflies in the Garden. Let’s hope he can turn things around because he really is charming to watch.
As for the ladies, Davis is her usual strong self (I'm not sure we'll ever see her give anything less than a solid performance) and McCarthy was a genuine surprise. I never watched Gilmore Girls but she's certainly on my radar now. It was nice of her to star in August’s vanity project but she should use her influence to get him to write something worthy of both their talents.
That'll do it for me, folks. I'll be back with some pretty major reviews as the Oscar race starts to heat up. I love this time of year. 'Til next time, this is MiraJeff signing off...
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