9 film review

On 9/9/09 of this year, I sat in the front row of theater 9 (really) at the Drafthouse and watched the movie “9.” This is my review of the film. It will most likely be the first of many reviews, but I don’t purport to be a critic per se. I am, however, terribly critical, which should give me all the tools I need.

“9” begins with images from a flashback that seek to figuratively and literally weave a story of creation. We are witness to human hands delicately working on a rag doll--setting robotic eyes into empty sockets, stitching together seams, and painting the number 9 on its back. The rest of the film, however, focuses on telling a story of destruction. The initial images of a room awash in loose papers, displaced books, and warped wood provide an ominous tone that is soon confirmed when the character opens a nearby window. The camera draws back from the window to reveal a landscape painted with thick strokes of apocalyptic imagery: blown out buildings with exposed frames, blackened vehicles, rusted metal and rolling hills of crumbled concrete.

The imagery and artwork were instantly compelling, but the film’s greatest strength was its initial silence. Without life’s background noise, the audience was wholly immersed in the aloneness of the character. The abundance of nothingness caused everything to echo. Loudly. To the extent we could hear the character’s emotions. To my disappointment, however, 9 quickly runs into another numbered doll who provides him a voice box. This meeting ushers in what would become the dominant theme of the film: unbridled action.

Through a series of fortunes and misfortunes (all too convenient to be plausible), 9 finds himself in the company of other numbered, sentient dolls. Although each of these dolls own a particular set of attributes and personality traits (along with different numbers), the development of these characters is driven solely by their reaction and relation to 9. They might as well have never existed before 9 appeared. Still, the director covered all the archetypal bases – there is the over-protective father figure, the muscle, the love interest, the slightly insane yet curiously cute oddball, etc. I’m sure you get it.

Back to the action. Once it started, it never seemed to stop. Although I don’t imagine most one-eyed, saw-wielding robots would offer “time outs” in their quest for ultimate destruction, the pacing was such a departure from the opening first half of the film. The director attempted to slow things down by developing tie-ins – the character was shown newspaper clippings and news reels depicted how the world came to an end – but that just begged more questions and exposed obvious plot gaps. What had started as a profoundly quiet film was growing uncomfortably mind-numbing. For me.

I hope I don’t dissuade many readers with this next comment, but “9” the character is a typical non-heroic hero. Cue in spear-wielding love interest that also acts as party strong-(wo)man. I normally have no problems with this dichotomy, if only the director didn’t belabor the point by having 9 become a victim to the over-produced love at first sight shot – pupils get large, slight gasp, hold the breath, pan in slowly to capture expression. The story pretty much writes itself after this. Still, I couldn't help but think that the asexual construction of the dolls wouldn't really lend itself to a useful relationship. Feeling the love would be an issue. Not to sound crass.

Now that I have spent the better part of this review falling just shy of berating many aspects of the film, I’m going to pull an about face. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. As a fan of anything post-apocalyptic, animated and artistic, “9” sung to my soul. Sure, there were plot deficiencies. The characters, too, may have suffered from lack of depth, and the dialogue seemed to work against itself at times, but I’m willing to look past all that. Why? Because to develop an idea of this nature and produce it as visually artistic as this is commendable. It’s also important. Why? Because very few films can succeed at grasping the human conundrum without featuring a single human being. It challenges us to ponder – can humanity exist without being?