The Ninth Gate

10 April 2012

If in need, call on the Devil. Roman Polanski, whose one-time distinguished career is probably now beyond repair on Earth, goes where the sulphur is most pungent in The Ninth Gate. False trail; the demon never appears, knowing better, perhaps, than to show his face in this old-fashioned quest for an antique volume penned - or, at least, illustrated - by none other than Lucifer himself.

Johnny Depp, playing in middle-ageing, subdued mode with specs and moustache, is a cunning NY book dealer, Dean Corso, hired by billionaire bibliophile Boris Balkan - the names at least are entertaining - to track down the authentic first edition. Balkan (Frank Langella) has everything, but wants the world, too: the book provides the fast-track recipe. Unfortunately, Depp finds someone else knocking off the owners of other copies before he can close a deal. He encounters the predatory widow (Lena Olin) of a previous owner (deceased in the opening seconds) who betrays possibly infernal connections through a brand mark tattooed on her hip bone; and a mystery blonde (Emmanuelle Seigner) who keeps coming and going (and occasionally floating through the air on all but visible panto wires).

The trail leads from Manhattan penthouses into French chateaux (where the overspill from Eyes Wide Shut are staging their orgy) and up Portuguese blind alleys until even Polanski can't hide a grin at the ridiculous enterprise his production company has managed to flog to the distributors.

"You've found your niche at last," crows the arch-villain (guess who) stuffing Depp through the rotting timbers of a ruined castle, just the sort of unhygienic location people use to conjure up evil spirits in films. Admittedly, the characters who come out of the equally worm-eaten plot are sometimes amusingly played - especially the double act performed by Jose Lopez Rodero as a pair of sinister identical twins, and Barbara Jefford as a bilious German baroness - and most of them don't stay alive long enough, anyhow, to become bores. Fun in fits and re-starts, but a better title would be The Devil's Potboiler.

The Ninth Gate
Cert: 15

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