Hellishly dull

>> Polanski's The Ninth Gate gives Lucifer a bad name

by MATTHEW HAYS

 With his latest film, Roman Polanski has effectively evoked hell on earth. It's not that we believe the film's cast, led by Johnny Depp, is heading to hell, but rather that we, the audience, are already there.

 The Ninth Gate--a fitting title, seeing as the film felt like it ran somewhere over nine hours--refers to the legendary Satanic how-to book, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of the Shadows. It seems one nasty, horrid man (played by Frank Langella) wants desperately to get his hands on the various volumes of the book, so he can reach out and touch Satan directly. So he hires another nasty, horrid man (Johnny Depp), an antique-book detective who specializes in questionable ethical practices. Enter a couple of Polanski specials (i.e. slutty women), played by Lena Olin and Emmanuelle Seigner, who flirt with Depp relentlessly while offering up various clues about where the Satanic tomes rest.

 That's about it. I'm not kidding. The film moves along at a deadening pace, without anything really happening. Okay, it's not exactly dead--there are the occasional spasms, including a scene where Olin gets to bite Depp on the chest during a lovemaking scene that turns nasty (lucky bitch!). But these moments are few and far between; suffice it to say The Ninth Gate is at very least in a coma.

 I'm a big sucker for films involving Beelzebub. I loved The Omen movies (I even sat through the third one) and adored The Exorcist (I even sat through the second one). But Polanski's vision is so dreary here, he risks giving Lucifer a bad name. Despite all the endless possibilities for nastiness, we get insufficient glimpses of evil, a few chase sequences and an obligatory final confrontation which doesn't make up for the previous eight and a half hours of ennui.

 It's almost impossible to believe this is the same Polanski who brought us Chinatown, as well as truly scary movies like The Tenant. As hellish an experience as sitting through The Ninth Gate was, it dawned on me that he has managed to achieve something with this movie: Polanski has unintentionally given new meaning to the term "banality of evil." :

 

The Ninth Gate opens Friday, March 10