Quote:
Originally Posted by Sculpt
The Ninth Gate (1999)
7/10
Rare book dealer (Johnny Depp) is hired to find and compare two remaining copies of an ancient occult book believed to contain secrets for summoning the devil and powers.
Based on the book The Club Dumas, and directed by Roman Polanski. Starts off with plenty of intrigued as Depp motions the endeavor into a film noir hunt for the book with plenty of dangers whilst an interesting puzzle develops regarding the books. It's a coherent and bookended film.
Unfortunately, instead of amping the puzzle à la National Treasure or The Da Vinci Code, the puzzle becomes more simple, to the point of near irrelevance. The pace also appears to slow, as character development and suspense seem to cease. Ironically, the occult horror, so palpable in Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, is not pursued, and as the film progresses there's ever less a feeling of danger. The final scenes seem more a dry, reluctant footnote that highlights the lack of material at hand; as items seemed to be checkoff the cart, but few items added.
|
I like The Ninth Gate. I was looking into the book props for my collection. There is a creeping darkness about the movie. I can't really say the part I thought was clever without spoiling it. But I thought the secret and mystery of the book was cool. I guess it's the sort of movie with a few drinks like the characters in the movie, you just fall into the atmosphere, music, and settings. I love the library early in the movie. I want to setup the book prop with that postcard photo. And I do tend to get higher end editions of books. The most recent one was this Storms at Sea deluxe edition. Here is a flip though of the normal.
I guess I really like the movie and would probably fall into the same trap as Johnny Depp's character.