You Should See ‘Nine Days’ on the Off Chance That it Changes Your Life
| Photo by Murai .hr on Unsplash
(REVIEW) Both because of its fascinating premise and initial reactions at the Sundance Film Festival in the early months of 2020, Edson Oda’s feature debut, Nine Days, is one of my favorite kinds of movies to watch. The general consensus, from what now feels like a lifetime ago, either claimed that it is a masterpiece or that it is garbage. Opinions that fall in the middle are rare. You are taken by it or it takes you nowhere. It is captivating and beautiful, moving you in a way that only the best of art can or it simply isn’t.
The film mostly takes place in a single household, which belongs to Will (Winston Duke), where he spends his days observing what happens on the overabundance of television sets stacked on one another in his living room. These televisions display various people’s lives through their own eyes. Will exists in a strange dimension before “real” existence as “an interviewer.” He interviews souls (that look like ordinary people to the viewer) to pick which of them will be given the gift of life. The film follows Will going through this nine-day process during which he gives each of the interviewees tests to best understand their character. Based on their performances, he then judges if they have what it takes to survive in the real world. Simultaneously, Will fixates on one of the people he has previously picked to be born into the real world whose life he watches on a TV screen.
Although this premise is exceptionally promising, the film never reaches the heights of this promise. It fails to enter the areas of depth possible with this premise and even carries itself with a sort of profoundness it never attains. To make matters worse, there is a jarring disconnect between the film and the viewer as you wait for a chord of depth to be struck while the story presupposes to have already done so.
Alongside Duke, the film stars Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Tony Hale and Bill Skarsgård. The cast, nearly as interesting as its premise given that this ensemble — all who featured in one, if not multiple, of the largest blockbusters in recent years — have all come together in this small, purportedly existential indie drama.
Yet most of these performers have no room to stretch their legs within these roles. Each character is confined to a hollow caricature of their own stereotypical outlook on life: the tough guy has a kill or be killed mentality, the relaxed guy can’t take anything seriously, the whimsical girl with an overzealous appreciation for the minute details of life.
The best performances and most interesting characters come from Duke and Wong. Their friendship conflicting with their respective cynicism and optimism about the real world makes for the most interesting character dynamic, but this is only so in light of everything else that is especially shallow.
The film is never able to emulate the beauty in life that its characters are affirming, nor is it able to reach any sort of compelling or eye-opening positions on life because it is so reductionistic about these matters. It’s doomed the moment it attempts to tackle tough existential questions while simultaneously narrowing people down to the way in which they answer hypothetical ethical dilemmas (i.e. would you kill your child if it meant saving eleven strangers).
Though it could be argued that Will’s reductionistic attitude is precisely what quirky and eye-rollingly warmhearted Emma (Zazie Beetz) is trying to reveal to Will about himself, I’d contest the idea because Emma’s character is reduced to a caricature as much as anything else. The attempt to paint her as “different” from the rest of the interviewees is excruciatingly conspicuous, making a harmless character irritating. But ultimately, her jubilance isn’t the problem. It’s her superficial point of view that lacks any nuance: if we’d only choose not to focus on the horrific aspects of the real world, they can’t bring us down.
Consistent with the characters’ inability to express the complexities of human nature, the television sets display a VHS aesthetic which look at people’s everyday lives and insufficiently capture meaningful moments with any sort of resonance.
Quite simply, in a film about life, life can’t be felt.
However, regardless of the harsh light in which I’ve painted it, the film isn’t void of occasional strengths. There’s a violin score consistent throughout the film that is lovely even if it occasionally makes the emotional beats painfully obvious. Additionally, the film takes a much subtler approach than it does the rest of its material to Will’s fixation and perplexion with one of the person’s lives he watches. This makes for the most intriguing aspect of the film, particularly because the questions about life it raises aren’t thrown at you but, alongside Will, slowly grow like a tumor in your mind.
The film has a striking ending that left enough resolution, though it would’ve been exceedingly rewarding and emotionally stirring had I been on the same wavelength Oda wanted me on during everything that precedes it. And at the end of the day, the film is unique, original, and more deserving of your money than a lot of the films currently in theaters like Black Widow and Jungle Cruise.
Oda’s film certainly isn’t changing my life anytime soon, but due to the hit or miss nature of the film, I can’t help but recommend it. If it sounds like something that might be up your alley, give it a shot. Who knows? Perhaps Nine Days will transfix you from start to finish and leave you with a greater appreciation for life in a way that it, sadly, couldn’t do for me.
Score: ★★½ (2.5/5)
‘Nine Days’ is currently showing in select theaters.