The Ninth Gate (1999) - film review

Dean Corso makes a living hunting down rare books for wealthy clients.  New York publisher Boris Balkan offers him a blank cheque if he can prove the authenticity of a 17th Century book of satanic spells, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows.  Only three copies of the book are known to exist, and Corso’s mission is to find the two other copies and compare it with Balkan’s. Corso’s quest takes him to Lisbon and Paris, and he soon discovers that the book holds a strange and sinister secret.  When the people he encounters on the way die – horribly – it becomes clear that someone else is eager to take possession of the three books…

The Ninth Gate sees director Roman Polanski make a welcome and long-awaited return to the genre for which he is best known, the fantasy horror film.  His previous forays into the genre include such acclaimed works as Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Tenant (1976), some of his best films, and so a great deal was expected of this latest fantasy offering.  The casting of Johnny Depp in the role of the lead character, a kind of intellectual Indiana Jones, was certainly unexpected.

The film may not be in the league of Polanski’s previous fantasy horror flicks – its biggest fault being that it doesn’t take itself seriously enough – but it’s a lot better than some critics would have us believe.  There are echoes of the director’s earlier works, both in terms of style and narrative content.  Once again, we see a seemingly well-adjusted yet vulnerable hero drawn ineluctably into a dark and mysterious universe, which may be real, or may simply be a result of a slow mental collapse.  Are the barely glimpsed diabolical forces which propel the story real or imaginary?  We can never be sure, but Polanski makes it as chilling as Hell...

The creepy neo-Gothic style with its twisted black humour – Roman Polanki’s trademark – is as seductive as it is grimly disturbing.  Whilst it may not be as satisfying and as sophisticated as Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Ninth Gate passes muster as an absorbing, diverting piece of nightmare-inducing escapism – a curious hybrid of The Da Vinci Code and The Omen – marred only by some ridiculous plot developments and comic excesses in the final half hour.   And Johnny Depp is actually rather good.

© James Travers 2007

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