THE NINTH GATE (2000)

Although it’s not Director Roman Polanski’s classic film, but film buff like me can’t avoid seeing his combination with Johnny Depp. He is always safe bet to play the shrewd, idiosyncratic and unusual characters and surely Hollywood’s unbeatable chameleon actor without competition. Polanski’s films always explore the internal crisis of the loner protagonist who is always occupied with the flux of the mundane world and carried away by his inherent and uncontrolled instincts whether it’s Nicholson in ‘Chinatown’ or Adrien Brody in ‘The Pianist’. He maintains the same Director’s idea with Depp’s character too but not in a refined classic manner.

Corso (Johnny Depp) is purely money minded professional who works for Book store, Press and Precious Clients. He helps his clients to find rare books and get his handsome cut. A client named Balkan hires him to search the original copy of the book titled as ‘The Ninth Gate’ which is regarded as Satan Lucifer’s oral confession to wake him up. He has to search the other two replica of the same book given by his client and verify the original one among them. During his search he encounters some unusual events which made his own life hell.

Polanski has kept the thrill factor running with gripping and interesting ‘What’s next?’ treatment. The wisest choice of the film is casting of Johnny Depp in lead.
It’s well made thriller which successfully maintained the interest of the audience till its climax. But the denouement of end part gave me cheating feel. I don’t know about the others opinion but I’m expecting better ending while watching Polanski film.

Ratings-7/10