THE NINES
US, 2007, 99 minutes, Colour.
Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, Melissa Mc Carthy, Elle Fanning.
Directed by John August.
The Nines is an intriguing film. It focuses on contemporary media. It focuses on philosophical and even theological questions about the world, human identity, creation, and the role of God.
John August was a writer on such films as Minority Report. However, in reflecting on the role of the writer, the writer's creation of characters, the writer giving them a life of their own and having to let them go, he decided to be a director for this film and also to ponder about the nature of his control of his characters as director.
The film has three parts with Ryan Reynolds, Melissa Mc Carthy, and Hope Davis having three different roles.
The film opens with the Ryan Reynolds’ character in despair, setting fire to his girlfriend’s possessions, going to find some crack, driving and drinking, finally being arrested because the house is burnt down. The film then moves into the three sections.
The first is called Prisoner where the same character is confined to house arrest. The film shows him meandering around the house. It also shows the role of his agent, Margaret (Melissa Mc Carthy), and her supervising him. He also has a curious next door neighbour played by Hope Davis. He does get out and finds a young girl who is mute and uses sign language. However, he is returned to his home and confined with a leg brace, which will indicate his going beyond the barriers set down. This section of the film, which was made on 16mm film, starts to raise questions about the identity of the character as well as of the two women.
The film then makes a transition to the second part in which Ryan Reynolds plays a screenwriter for television. Hope Davis is the production manager. Melissa Mc Carthy is the star (playing herself, with her real life husband playing himself). The film was made on ordinary digital video. With a crew of five, there is an intensity and immediacy about this story. The film traces the preparation of a pilot, its filming, the testing of the pilot with an audience and the decision to change the main star. The film also is a documentary about all of this. Everything is being filmed and sometimes the characters turn to the camera. The film is also a critique of the use of testing for the success of pilots - adapting, as the author suggests, the film to the stupidest people in the room and their understanding. In this part of the film, the same questions of that identity are raised and a kind of parallel universe has been created with parallel characters.
The third part of the film is filmed in 35mm with all the best technical equipment. This time Ryan Reynolds plays a family man who is a creator of video games. Melissa Mc Carthy is his wife, Elle Fanning his daughter, Hope Davis a stranger he meets on the road when the car breaks down in the forest and he seeks help. In this part of the film, something of the mystery is unravelled.
What John August is intending is that one can understand something of the nature of God and the best of all possible worlds with the image and analogy of the screenwriter. While God might be a number ten, the screenwriter is a number nine. There are many illusions, real and mystical to the number nine throughout the film.
The philosophy of the writer is that everybody does the best that they can, creating a world, trying to understand, but failing to create the best world. In this sense, the film is an analogy about God and incarnation because Ryan Reynolds’ three characters have also been on earth for many, many years, the characters are being called back out of the world which will then self-destruct - or will it?
Ryan Reynolds, best known for action films like Blade or many comedies in which he plays a slacker, is a complete surprise in his skill in these three roles. Melissa Mc Carthy uses the reality of her size and weight to advantage in her characters. Hope Davis has proven over many years that she is a strong performer in independent films.
A film, which raises a lot of questions. It also entertains as well as intrigues.
1. A film about cinema, about television, reality and fantasy? The role of writers? Directors? Their characters? God equivalents?
2. The meaning of the title, the writers as number nines? Not quite perfect or in control? God as a ten? Humans as sevens? (The koalas as eights?) The use of the number nine throughout the film? Its mystique?
3. The prologue, three stories following, the range of performances, the interconnection of the stories, themes?
4. The underlying themes: the notion of creativity, creation, control of characters, being able to let them go, living their own lives? The author alive in the characters? The nature of this kind of incarnation? The hesitations of the writers - that they are not God? Creating possible worlds? The best of all possible worlds or not? Creation of good and evil? The characters who understand that they are characters, and what this means? Those who do not? The possibility of changing the world, alternate worlds? Leaving the world? The world collapsing or not?
5. The prologue, Gary, his collecting the clothes to burn, driving, drinking, getting the crack, with the woman, his high? The arrest? The burning of the house? The introduction to the themes?
6. The first story: the prison, Gary and the police, Margaret and her role as PR, her presence? Controlling Gary? House arrest, the owner absent, the lavish furnishings of the house, making himself at home, the isolation, reading, sexual activity, sensing the presence of others - and Margaret saying it was rats? Sarah next door, her baby, the sound of the baby crying? Their discussions, her visit, her sexual advances, the personal crisis? Gary going out, seeing the little girl, her muteness, signing? His arrest, the leg-iron on him? Margaret and her explanations? His unease? Sensing there was something else about the house? Margaret and her comment that they had communicated from age twelve? Sarah and suggestions of something beyond the present?
7. Taylor, the writer, his appearance, Ryan Reynolds' different performance? His hopes, writing of the pilot, the filming of the pilot? Susan, her role as an executive, Roger and the decision-making? The various discussions, the TV world? Melissa as the star, her auditions, performance, with the little girl? The scenes in the car with the little girl? The fact that everything was being filmed as reality television? The actual use of video? The characters, the crises? The nature of friendship, broken friendships? Melissa and her being let go, Taylor going to tell her, her saying she understood, her reaction? The loss of trust? The various bosses? The screening, the audience testing, the man confronting through the one-way mirror? he interviewing of the new star? The mystery of the house?
8. The third story, the family, again a different performance from Ryan Reynolds? His wife and daughter? Travelling, the breakdown in the forest? His walking to the highway, meeting Sierra, her fears, her return, helping? Their being lost? The confrontation? Mary and her daughter, the repetition of the television scene? Sierra confronting the husband? The revelation of the truth, the explanations? Sierra and her menace? Mary and her knowledge? The issue of destroying the world or returning home to normality? Changing the world?
9. The film's comment on media, reality television, reality itself, film as edited, testing reactions to film and television, the pursuit of the truth?
10. The philosophical and theological analogies used throughout the film - especially for God, writers and directors – being like God, "playing God"?
