Nine Days - Review

Trekking through a very different sort of conceit in a house, Edson Oda and his absolute gem of a cast meanwhile seek the meaning of life in Nine Days. Winston Duke leads as Will, a man in a space beyond earthly existence who passes judgment on which unborn souls will be granted the gift and opportunity of life. After the sudden death of his previous star selection, young violin prodigy Amanda, Will wrestles with selecting a new candidate from his newest batch of recruits, thinking only of the indifferent, uncaring existence that awaits them on Earth. Nine Days doesn't fully reach its lofty ambitions in exploring the spectrum of life and all its delights, suffering, and mysteries, Oda's approach being too binary in its outlook. 

Duke gives his all as Will, but his reeling from the loss of Amanda becomes the character too much of a hard-ass to connect with. In the polar opposite sense, his counterpart in Zazie Beetz's soul to be, Emma, is too naive in her optimism to provide a proper sense of philosophical friction. There's no authentic nuance to be had in Oda's ideas as a result (and his writing leans too obviously into one of the opposing camps for a proper address of the world), especially with most of the film's dramatic pathos coming from its characters watching TV and plodding through unengaging thought experiments. Still, the great Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgård, Tony Hale, and more anchor the film down with just enough performative spice to keep one's attention. Between its inspired use of old school analogue technology, beautifully original imagery, and Oda's general creative zest throughout, Nine Days also has its fair share of magical moments to keep the train going, enough to make its mixed bag of an odyssey through the Great Before and Beyond one at least worth considering.