Spoilers
The "Ninth Gate" is an undistinguished and unspectacular movie. If it had not been directed by Roman Polanski and had not featured Johnny Depp, it would have passed completely unnoticed and received ratings between 3 and 5. Of course, you can see that the movie had some budget and was realized by a competent director, but the rest is an old hat. The plot evolves around an antique book about the devil, and most of the people related to it get killed (mostly in unspectacular ways). The mystery is quickly resolved: Already when Johnny Depp studies the book the first time in a library, you can see a woodcut depicting a woman resembling very much Emmanuelle Seigner (so she is related to the devil). The fact that she turns into a guardian "angel" for Johnny Depp makes it clear that he is a "chosen one" of some kind. When Johnny Depp examines the second copy of the book, he discovers the main secret about the woodcuts, and then we do not hear anything new about them until at the end Frank Langella briefly summarizes the meaning of each one. The devil is also the same as usual: He comes in a beautiful guise (Emmanuelle Seigner, bright light), but at the end he betrays those worshipping him. The main problem about this movie is that it is filmed completely without passion. It never becomes exciting or even shocking. The spectator remains as unaffected by the events as Johnny Depp (who keeps the same ice cold uninterested expression during the whole movie). For a film about the devil and hell, this is particularly strange. If you want to watch a movie where hell really breaks loose, I recommend Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond". In my opinion, Polanski made this movie without any personal involvement, just for earning some money.
The "Ninth Gate" is an undistinguished and unspectacular movie. If it had not been directed by Roman Polanski and had not featured Johnny Depp, it would have passed completely unnoticed and received ratings between 3 and 5. Of course, you can see that the movie had some budget and was realized by a competent director, but the rest is an old hat. The plot evolves around an antique book about the devil, and most of the people related to it get killed (mostly in unspectacular ways). The mystery is quickly resolved: Already when Johnny Depp studies the book the first time in a library, you can see a woodcut depicting a woman resembling very much Emmanuelle Seigner (so she is related to the devil). The fact that she turns into a guardian "angel" for Johnny Depp makes it clear that he is a "chosen one" of some kind. When Johnny Depp examines the second copy of the book, he discovers the main secret about the woodcuts, and then we do not hear anything new about them until at the end Frank Langella briefly summarizes the meaning of each one. The devil is also the same as usual: He comes in a beautiful guise (Emmanuelle Seigner, bright light), but at the end he betrays those worshipping him. The main problem about this movie is that it is filmed completely without passion. It never becomes exciting or even shocking. The spectator remains as unaffected by the events as Johnny Depp (who keeps the same ice cold uninterested expression during the whole movie). For a film about the devil and hell, this is particularly strange. If you want to watch a movie where hell really breaks loose, I recommend Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond". In my opinion, Polanski made this movie without any personal involvement, just for earning some money.
