Nine Days (2020): To Life

   

          I do not talk of the beginning or the end.        

        There was never any more inception than there is now,

        Nor any more youth or age than there is now,

        And will never be any more perfection than there is now,

        Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

                            - Walt Whitman

The new movie Nine Days is an unusual feature by writer-director Edson Oda – a superb debut that feels like the work of a seasoned master. It is a seductive film that casts a spell to pull you in both you intellectually and emotionally. One of those pictures that stays with you for a long time.   

A Japanese Brazilian working out of Sao Paulo, Oda started his career as a successful advertising copywriter, before quitting and moving to the US to become a filmmaker. After getting his masters at USC, he wrote, directed and supervised advertising projects for a number of major corporate clients as well as independent short films, among other things garnering a nomination for a Latin GRAMMY award for best music video.  He is 35-years-old.

A thoughtful, provocative and captivating drama, Nine Days is hard to describe because it is so original. Watching with my wife, both of us were fully engrossed in the imaginative milieu Oda has created, when – about an hour into it - we were interrupted by an urgent question from our adult daughter in another part of the house. Her question answered, she inquired about how we were liking our movie, and all we could say was that it was quite unlike anything we had seen before and absolutely phenomenal.  

Thematically, Nine Days is about souls and the process by which they are selected to become human beings - essentially, a competition for a chance to live. But that’s only partially right; because it is just as much about the troubled psyche of the person whose god-like job it is to choose which souls will be born. Still, while such descriptions are true, they do not convey the essence of the film all that well.  It is far more than a character study or a plotline about selecting winners and losers in a competition between unborn souls. Oda’s ambitions are much broader than that; so this multi-layered work also addresses perennially relevant questions about the nature and significance of human life itself. What makes for a good or meaningful life:  A strong moral character? Success or accomplishment? Mindfulness? Comradeship? A sense of wonder? Having fun?  

In Oda’s reckoning, faith – at least the religious kind - doesn’t enter into it.  All he requires (of us anyway) is a willingness to suspend our disbelief and entertain, for a couple hours at least, the possibility of a before-life and/or afterlife and the notion that we have some sort of incorporeal personas or souls. 

Oda’s creation takes place in what might be called an alternate universe or more accurately an unseen dimension of our own earthly universe, but this this is not a sci-fi film or a fantasy in the usual sense. Although the setting is an imagined place – a limbo where souls are created and selected, the look and feel of Nine Days is very down to earth. Most of the story takes place in a modest, yellow, early to mid-20th century bungalow with a distinctly analogue aesthetic. The living room has a cozy stuffed sofa facing a wall outfitted with a bank of maybe 20 to 30 small 60’s and 70’s style TVs and a VHS recorder. The kitchen is out of Ozzie and Harriet. There are no computers (at least none in evidence) – notes are taken on paper, in longhand.  The house, on the other hand, is situated in an unearthly nowhere – a bleak, mysterious, often fog enshrouded landscape with no other structures in sight.

Living in the yellow house is Will, an imposing Winston Duke [who was M’Baku in Black Panther (2018)], all 6 feet 5 inches of him, conservatively attired in mid-century sweater-vest, suspenders and wire rimmed specs. Will’s mood is largely one of melancholy and existential pain, resulting it seems from unhappy experiences during his earthly existence some indeterminate time ago. But here in limbo or wherever it is, he is a selector – charged with choosing the best, most qualified replacement to be born when one of his previous selections passes on.  He spends his days watching the lives of others, his previous selectees, as they unfold in real time.  Will takes meticulous notes on his observation. He lives alone but is visited from time to time by his neighbor, friend and coworker-advisor, Kyo - played by Benedict Wong.  Will and Kyo often watch the reality TV screens together; and sometimes on special occasions of Will’s subjects – weddings, recitals – the two men even get dressed up. 

Then, one day, one of Will’s protegees – his favorite - tragically dies; and his carefully managed emotional equilibrium is upset.     

Early the next morning, there’s a knock on the door. The first of several newly minted souls has arrived to be interviewed for the vacant position. Several more will appear throughout the day.   Will has nine days to decide which one will be born into earthly life. The others will be extinguished. 

The candidates look and act like ordinary, fully formed people. When they first show up at the yellow house, they are just a few hours old but appear as adults in a variety of ages. Evenly split (roughly) between men and women, the hopefuls have diverse personalities and different sensibilities, speak fluently, and seem aware of how actual alive people behave and live in the world. They don’t understand how they got this way. They all know, however, why they have come to Will’s house. Every one yearns to be born.

Will starts by giving each candidate a name. For example, there’s Mike - a sweet, sensitive young man (David Rysdahl)); Maria - a middle aged romantic (Arianna Ortiz); Alexander – a beer-and-barbecue everyman and somewhat of a smartass (Tony Hale); Kane – an ambitious, young corporate climber type (Bill Skarsgard); and last to arrive, but not least, Emma – a free spirit (Zazie Beetz). 

To get to know the candidates, Will spends time with each of them, initially in the form of an interview but also more casually. His interviews include vigorous testing – for example, describing a hypothetical (and disturbing) moral dilemma and demanding, “What would YOU do?” As another example, candidates are asked to watch the TV screens for a few hours and then explain what they liked best or disliked most. 

The actors playing the souls are superb – each inhabits a distinct and credible personality, sometimes endearing sometimes annoying. As in most contest shows from Survivor to The Great British Baking Show, we may find ourselves rooting for one person and maybe against another as we get to know them. But as the contest progresses, we can’t help but realize that more is at stake here. Each candidate, regardless of their flaws, comes across as familiarly touchingly human; so knowing that everyone but the winner will soon be terminated makes playing this game less palatable than the TV variety. 

As we come to appreciate the difficulty of the god-like task Will is performing, questions may arise about the selection criteria he is using or even about his suitability for the job. But what should the criteria be?  What set of characteristics would make a prospective person deserving or undeserving of life? If you were Will, what would YOU do? 

With a towering performance by Winston Duke, Will comes across as a commanding figure.  One on one with the candidates, he can be awfully scary, but mostly he is restrained and business-like. The actor lets us see that the cool formality is a front, that behind Will’s stolid exterior there’s a person in pain, roiling with anger and regret. Some of the candidates will sense this too. And yet, when the time comes to deliver bad news, Will goes out of his way to seem kind and empathetic. 

The character that most audience members will connect with and like the most is Emma. Some of the credit goes to Oda’s screenplay, of course, but it’s the unaffected performance of Zazie Beetz [Atlanta (2016-21), Joker (2019)], who brings Emma to life.  Like the other souls, she wants to be chosen, but she will not grovel or play-act or try to game the system to get there. She can only be herself: open, curious, observant, questioning, sensitive to others. As I said earlier, she’s a free spirit. With Will, she is disarmingly direct, and although she gets under his skin, he knows she is something special. 

The other principal actors are also excellent. Worthy of special mention are Tony Hale and Benedict Wong – both of whom provide an interesting mixture of comic relief and depth to the proceedings. For me, Hale – primarily known to me for his role as Buster Bluth in Arrested Development (2003-19) and as the voice of Forky in Toy Story 4 (2019) – was a revelation. Neither an innocent nor a dummy, his Alexander is invariably informal, an unambitious, superficial seeker of simple pleasures (like having a beer with a buddy), who nevertheless feels righteously entitled to be Will’s friend and thus his choice.  Wong was previously unknown to me, although he was featured as the character “Wong” in Dr Strange (2016) and other Avengers films. Here, as Kyo [pronounced Kee-yo] his common sense, warmth and decency act as a counterweight to Will’s dour persona, while helping us better understand what, in fact, is eating at Will. 

At its core Nine Days is a film about that precious miracle called Life. We take it for granted so much of the time, but in the view of creator Edson Oda, being born into this world is like winning the lottery – something we should remember to be grateful for. It is rare that a movie as ambitious as Nine Days makes good on its premise, but this one does.  It is an engaging, thought provoking, heartfelt, uplifting motion picture.  Despite the pre-life limbo world it supposes, this is a picture that feels surprisingly natural to live in for a while.  It is beautifully shot, too. Highly recommended as one of the very best movies I have seen this year. 

124 minutes 

Grade: A

Opening Friday August 6 in theaters everywhere. 

Streaming dates have not yet been announced