The Ninth Gate Movie Review:


To ham or not to ham ? That is a question the filmakers should have asked themselves as they were making this movie. Why? Well, read on.

Johnny Depp plays his tongue rammed firmly in his cheek as he so obviously feels that the whole movie is a piece of nonsense and, quite often there is nothing wrong with that. Light and frivoulous is just as important as weight and gravitas.

However he should have maybe explained this to Roman Polanski, as he directs the movie totally straight, without a hint of irony at all. Has Roman Polanski not woken up to the fact that we have seen what is on offer here so many times before? Take the Omen series which it is close to in subject matter in dealing with the Devil and his attempts to visit earth.

The Movie is utterly predictable and holds no surprises at all, you will sit there and second guess every single thing that happens in this movie. Sorry but I and you should expect (and in fact deserve) more for our money.

Because Depp and Polanski are almost completely at odds with each other with the movie, it makes proceeding jar and shudder along and nothing seems to gel into a cohesive whole.

So, back to the question , if they had decided to play this movie for its ham value it could have been a slice of fun out of all those old Hammer films. But instead it doesn't know what it wanted to do.

Gary Gray

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