THE NINES

John August Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, Melissa McCarthy, Elle Fanning, David Denman Distributed by: Newmarket Films Film will be released on November 30th 2007 in the U.K. Review by Michael Edwards

rating: 3.5

Screenwriter John August has some serious credentials, he's completed the screenplays for A Corpse Bride, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and both Charlie's Angels outings. In The Nines he not only does the writing but takes the reigns as director, and it really paid off. August is a man who likes to play with reality, bounce between levels and versions of reality (Big Fish is case in point), and this is the raison d'etre of this outing. The plot is comprised of three short films following the lives of an actor, a writer, and a computer games designer each of whom is is played by Ryan Reynolds. In the first actor Gary goes off the rails on a binge of drink, drugs, and accidental arson (setting the scene not just for this story but the schizophrenic nature of the film itself) which lands him under house arrest. As the tale progresses stange occurrences plague the house, and mysterious stolen moments with a neighbour hint that everything is not as it seems. The climax of part one literally explodes into part two in a weird and unexplained way, dragging the cast of part one with it. This part is shot as a 'behind the scenes documentary' tailing writer Gavin as he pitches a show to TV execs, and becomes increasingly derailed, gradually losing control of reality. We also begin to see connections, aside from the obvious visual ones implied by cast continuity, between Gary and Gavin as lines, themes and objects recur. Indeed Gavin himself at various junctures begins to suspect he has some sort of parallel self. This scene departs the screen in a moment of brilliant surrealism which quirkily introduces the background of part 3, the story of a computer game designer stuck in the wilderness with his family. It is here that August tentatively proffers a solution to the plot, tying together the various strands of reality into a suggested, though not confirmed, outcome. The finished product is a clever an playful mystery thriller, that does more than enough to keep a broad range of viewers interested. But there's much more to it for all of us film buffs. The Nines is delightfully self-reflexive, and plays with the conventions of cinema in much the way you might expect from a writer like August, or in fact any decent writer making his feature debut! The use of the reality-TV style for part two of the story to at once detach the viewer from his traditional cinematic role as voyeur who forges his own understanding with the characters and to reattach him to the character in a way more often associated with the less intense medium of TV is not just a quirk designed to play up the film's kooky undertones, it serves further to manipulate our reactions to what we see on screen - drawing us closer to Gavin's emotions and clearly capturing Gavin's character, as distinct from his eerily similar counterparts in parts 1 and 3. Other moments in this vain are a great piece of dialogue in part 1 where Gary is asked to guess, much as the viewers will be doing at that point, what the heck is going on; and when Gabriel, the computer game designer from part 3, is forced to face the possibility that he is playing God in his own game. All of these features add up to a piece that messes with more than just style and plot, but with ideas. Ultimately a discussion of the fragmentary and confusing postmodern world we live in, The Nines shoves its audience around in the aggressively playful way that a schoolyard bully taunts his victims, but with enough witticisms and reflexivity to ward of any feelings of being victimised. Perhaps August focused a bit too heavily of the visual and verbal repetitions that characterised the tripartite tale, but I am more inclined to think that the film needed this moments to draw along those members of the audience who were lost in the tide of psychological confusion that so concisely portrayed the multifarious nature of the film industry, and the inherent difficulties of forming a secure and coherent identity in the information age. Likewise the ending could have been left more ambiguous given the shifting currents of the film but, that said, there was probably just enough ambiguity left in the final scene to justify the emergence of a plausible (and slightly unoriginal) ending which surfaced as the most likely conclusion. Personally, I think regular film-goers will enjoy this one for its clever manipulation of its own medium and of audience expectations, as well as its wit and flair that pace the plot in a masterly fashion. I probably should add the caveat, however, that those more inclined the the razzmatazz of special effects, or the more visual quirkiness of the likes of Wes Anderson may find this one a little pretentious...