The Nines (2007)

Seriously I didnt get it what so ever ..didnt really add up and there was no moment where it clicked altogether

Placed under house arrest, a television actor with drug problems starts experiencing strange and paranormal occurrences in this unusual thriller from 'Big Fish' and 'Corpse Bride' screenwriter John August. The title refers to the fact that, among other things, the actor seems to be plagued by the number nine in the form of dice roles, mousetraps set in his house, newspaper advertisements and so on. It is an undeniably intriguing premise, and one for which not a lot more can be said without ruining a fresh experience, but it can safely be said that the film is a triumph of mood and atmosphere. The film is divided into three chapters and the first is both suspenseful and unsettling as we are given little in the way of exposition. The final two chapters pale by comparison as more and more clues are dropped regarding the twist, but an ample amount of thought-provoking dialogue keeps things afloat. Several curious ideas abound such as "what life needs (is) a reset button" and a notion that actors don't "really exist" if nobody is watching them. A young pre-'Somewhere' Elle Fanning gives an excellent performance too that mostly comes out in the third chapter. Some have commented that the solution to the central mystery is underwhelming, and perhaps it is, but the personal identity issues that surface in the course of the film reaching its conclusion are endlessly absorbing. Reading about the film afterwards is also just as interesting; apparently August regards the movie as semiautobiographical, inspired by a part of his life in which he actually began to lose his grip on reality!

Really like what did I just watch? "A God is 10, and you are nine"!! The concept was interesting, Reynolds failed to deliver and so did the scriptwriters. I found the movie dragging the whole thing way too long. It could easily have been a short film of 15 minutes and I think that would have been more interesting as half of the movie isn't even connected to the plot anyway. Ryan Reynolds have come a long way since this movie as I watched his recent performances in Buried and Deadpool.I gave this a four star rating because the concept was interesting and as a video game designer and artist I can relate to the fact that creating a world inside a computer and working on it and making rules for that world, does feel like a little God. So yeah that concept is interesting in some ways.

I give this a 6 because it is actually quite good fun and entertaining, but it is not the intellectual exercise that some here seem to think it is. The film is divided into three parts and of the three the first part is the only one that is entertaining and gives you some mystery. The way the first part ends, however, just does not make any sense. Why does the world disappear when the 'being' steps back over the line? There is just no need for such dramatics. The second part is where they use metaphors to explain what exactly is going on, not that it needs it once the world disappeared. If you have a functioning brain you could have figured it all out from there. The absurd floating numbers at the end of Part 2 and the fairly explicit explanation from Melissa totally dispel whatever mystery might remain, for everyone surely but the most hard of thinking. The third part is just totally pointless. Reynolds is supposed to be a video game designer in this part, but nothing is actually made of this which renders the whole subterfuge pointless. The actor and the writer were given some prominence but not the video game creator, which is about as close as you could get to the god process. With the 3 parts you get a comedy, followed by a documentary, followed by a piece of cod philosophy. The writer then denies that the 9s are actually gods by implying that there is a 10. The numbers are just stupid, because if they are suggesting that humans are 7s and koala bears are 8s (so what are tricking dolphins and mice then? (yes Douglas Adams did it better)) and then the very next beings up are the creators of the universe who are 9s, suggests that there is nothing in between. So you go from a telepathic teddy bear to the creators of the universe in 1 number, not very imaginative then. One final point, the character played by Melissa, who is of course a 7, knows all about the 7s and the 9s and even the putative 10. How come? Did a careless 9 tell her all this? Worth seeing, maybe. Worth any intellectual capacity, not a chance. I am, of course, an atheist so all of these god type movies, like Lucy, leave me with a hugely stretched credulity. The real universe is much more awe-inspiring than any religious type mumbo-jumbo or meandering cod-philosophy could render.