The Ninth Gate (1999)
Johnny Depp is in my opinion one of the finest actors currently working out of Hollywood. It can be argued that his star has fallen somewhat thanks to numerous films with Tim Burton and the critical if not financial maulings his later Pirates of the Caribbean movies took although last years Black Mass showcased his acting chops making him a critics darling once again.
It's easy to forget that at the turn of the century Depp was taking challenging and also genre roles that people such as me immediately took to as he shook off his earlier teen dream tag in films like Donnie Brasco (1997), Fear and Loathing in Last Vegas (1998), Blow (2001) and the interesting horror triumvirate of Sleepy Hollow (1999), From Hell (2001) and yes, The Ninth Gate.
I love The Ninth Gate. I find it totally engrossing. Roman Polanski is a director with a long and loved career. From Repulsion (1965) to Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974) to The Pianist (2002), he's a director with a back catalogue of classic film making, but i think The Ninth Gate is his masterpiece.
It's a film that is superbly paced, the viewer is drawn in and gripped from the opening seconds and Polanski never lets go throughout all 133 minutes of it's run time. The music by Wojciech Kilar is outstanding as is the cinematography and indeed all the technical aspects, not to mention a terrific support cast including Emmanuelle Seigner and a seductive Lena Headey.
The story about a rare book dealer (Depp) who is employed for a lot of money by a billionaire collector (Frank Langella) to authenticate his copy of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, a book that was written in 1666 by the pen of Lucifer himself, and there are only three copies in existence. The quest takes Depp from New York to Portugal and on to Paris as he uncovers more disturbing secrets about the book.
It might help that i love books and i also love Occult movies and The Ninth Gate uses both ideas to make an outstanding psychological horror film. In fact Polanski's use of the Devil is ingenious. Similar in pace to say Chinatown except with a tremendous performance by Depp instead of Jack Nicholson, the film becomes creepier and more chilling as the secrets of the book and it's connections to the Devil unfold. Polanski gets the film under your skin in a way modern horror (The Witch aside) never comes close to doing and it proves all the better for it.
The Ninth Gate probably gets classed as one of both Roman Polanski and Johnny Depp's lesser films but to me both are at the very top of their game and The Ninth Gate is outstanding.
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