CONTAINS SPOILERS
At first, I thought it would be best not to say too much about this movie. It is so good that I didn't want to give any of it away. However, now that I've read the overwhelmingly negative reviews, I'd like to say a few things in the movie's defense.
The Ninth Gate is not a horror movie, not a thriller, not a campy comedy, not a drama. If you force the movie in any of these categories and judge it by the category's standards, the movie will be doomed to fail. What is the Ninth Gate, then? I'd say it's a character-based exploration of good and evil that also entertains us by poking fun at the representation of good and evil in popular culture. At the same time that the film plays with and laughs at cinematic conventions related to Satanism, heros, and villains, it offers us a very serious view of the nature of evil in contemporary life. This view crystallises at the very end of the film, when the ninth gate explodes with light. Insane psychopaths who spend all their time and money trying to wake the devil are not what the devil wants, this film tells us. The devil wants those millions of lukewarm types--people who are centered around their own survival and comfort, without strong feelings of morality, love, or hatred. To win these people over to the side of hell by offering them knowledge, power, and pleasure would be to win a great battle against God.
The charge that the movie is ambiguous is preposterous. Some say that the unnamed girl could be an angel, a demon, or a good but flawed person. Which should we choose? Well, anyone who watches the movie closely and sees how she reacts to various murders should have no trouble choosing. Others say that the ending is either heavenly or hellish and that it's impossible to say which. Again, anyone who pays attention and notices that the castle is the ninth gate, that there is a shadowy figure standing in the window when it fills with light, and that Depp is the very man depicted in the book that he reads should easily realise that the ending is utterly hellish. The film does leave open the question of whether hell is actually a reprehensible place, I think, but this is not ambiguity; this is a disturbingly open question that the film raises with intellectual mastery. Evil does have its attractions; that's why it's so prevalent throughout the world.
There is so much more to say about this movie, so many little details that deserve praise. Take Depp's ride in a truck filled with sheep--this is the birth of an antichrist. This time the devil wins with his/her temptations. Take the resemblance of the figures in the film to the figures in the books--clear but not at first obvious. There's so much here, so much. This is an exceptional film.
At first, I thought it would be best not to say too much about this movie. It is so good that I didn't want to give any of it away. However, now that I've read the overwhelmingly negative reviews, I'd like to say a few things in the movie's defense.
The Ninth Gate is not a horror movie, not a thriller, not a campy comedy, not a drama. If you force the movie in any of these categories and judge it by the category's standards, the movie will be doomed to fail. What is the Ninth Gate, then? I'd say it's a character-based exploration of good and evil that also entertains us by poking fun at the representation of good and evil in popular culture. At the same time that the film plays with and laughs at cinematic conventions related to Satanism, heros, and villains, it offers us a very serious view of the nature of evil in contemporary life. This view crystallises at the very end of the film, when the ninth gate explodes with light. Insane psychopaths who spend all their time and money trying to wake the devil are not what the devil wants, this film tells us. The devil wants those millions of lukewarm types--people who are centered around their own survival and comfort, without strong feelings of morality, love, or hatred. To win these people over to the side of hell by offering them knowledge, power, and pleasure would be to win a great battle against God.
The charge that the movie is ambiguous is preposterous. Some say that the unnamed girl could be an angel, a demon, or a good but flawed person. Which should we choose? Well, anyone who watches the movie closely and sees how she reacts to various murders should have no trouble choosing. Others say that the ending is either heavenly or hellish and that it's impossible to say which. Again, anyone who pays attention and notices that the castle is the ninth gate, that there is a shadowy figure standing in the window when it fills with light, and that Depp is the very man depicted in the book that he reads should easily realise that the ending is utterly hellish. The film does leave open the question of whether hell is actually a reprehensible place, I think, but this is not ambiguity; this is a disturbingly open question that the film raises with intellectual mastery. Evil does have its attractions; that's why it's so prevalent throughout the world.
There is so much more to say about this movie, so many little details that deserve praise. Take Depp's ride in a truck filled with sheep--this is the birth of an antichrist. This time the devil wins with his/her temptations. Take the resemblance of the figures in the film to the figures in the books--clear but not at first obvious. There's so much here, so much. This is an exceptional film.