Films hit you different ways or ask different things of you. Some go straight for the heartstrings while others make demands of your brain. Emotional versus philosophical. Here you get a double helping of philosophical. Enough to make even the most reluctant think about life as you think you know it.
Spending his days watching a live Point of View on television’s of people living their lives, Will (Winston Duke – Black Panther, Us) is stationed in a remote outpost. One day spills into the next, that is until one of people he is watching dies. The death leaves a spot for a new person to live on Earth.
A couple of unborn souls are lining up as candidates for that spot. They arrive at Will’s work to be put through test in order to find the most suitable candidate. Being that those who are not selected are faced with oblivion, the competition is fierce. The process will last nine days.
Winston is faced with a challenge of the existential variety of his own when he meets the wild Emma (Zazie Beetz – Joker, Deadpool 2). She makes him reevaluate things – for instance his past. Life changes for a few people.
What does it mean to live a good life. How do identify what the word violence means? All these words or concepts are examined here on one level or another. A rather ambitious attempt to bring it all to film. The meaning of life, etc. Director Edson Oda is very creative in his manner of presenting the addressing of these concepts. Concepts which are in flux. Are like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Elusive and ever changing depending who is the person thinking about them. What is acknowledged that no matter what you think these words mean that the life you (all of us) have is a gift. That is a concept which should not be debated.
Not a film or a concept which all will be drawn towards. Some will find it too high faluting. A mystery wrapped up in questions of what life means and what the possibilities are.
Special Features:
-The Making of Nine Days