From the "Movies" Archives:

by Brandon Judell

(indieWIRE/3.9.2000) -- Imagine a cute little lad with sweat on his brow banging away at a piñata with all of his might for over two hours. You just can't help admiring the obsessive, unbridled passion of the youth as he continuously swats at the paper mule. Finally, there's a rip, then another, and with one more thwack of the bat, the piöata breaks open, but only one Tootsie Roll falls out. If looks could kill . . .

And that's how you'll feel when "The End" pops up on the screen as the last notes of Roman Polanski's 14th feature film "The Ninth Gate" reach their coda. Seldom has such an outwardly intelligent, slow-building thriller by a master paid out so meagerly.

Based on the novel "El Club Dumas" by Arturo Pérez Reverte, a writer whose other works have been adapted by Jim McBride and Robert Young, "The Ninth Gate" is a tale about an unprincipled book dealer, Dean Corso (Johnny Depp), who'll stoop as low as possible to make a dollar. Appreciated for his lack of ethics, he's hired by the even more unscrupulous Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), a book collector of everything Satanic. Even the secret code to his private elevator is 666.

Well, Balkan is in possession of a tome supposedly co-written by Lucifer himself, "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of the Shadows," a legendary manual of satanic invocation. Solving its riddle will place its owner on the "road that leads to equality with God." There are two other copies left in the world. Balkan wants Corso to check them out to see if they're genuine or not, and in fact, to discover whether his own edition is a forgery.

Corso accepts, but when his apartment is immediately vandalized and people around him start getting murdered, he has second thoughts about his assignment. But, by then, it's too late to back out. His employer always hangs up on him before he can resign and anyway, Corso himself is intrigued as all hell by this mystery he's suddenly enveloped himself in.

There are also some added benefits. A rich widow, Liana Telfer (Lena Olin), is willing to bed Corso to win him over to her side. (She wants Balkan's copy of the book.) And then there's The Girl (Emmanuelle Seigner, Polanski's spouse) as she's listed in the credits, an unfathomable beauty who pursues him everywhere, often saving Corso's life. Is she employed by Balkan or . . . ?

One of the problems here for Polanski is that Satan in a book is not as engaging as Satan in your stomach ("Rosemary's Baby"), horny bloodsuckers ("The Fearless Vampire Killers") or nude witches ("Macbeth"). Another is that the film's hero is only a slight variant on the long parade of Mr. Depp's passive action heroes. But in his other ventures such as "Sleepy Hollow," "Edward Scissorhands," or even the disastrous "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," there's a whole lot happening about him. Nonetheless, Depp is solid here, with his oddly vacuous beauty muted with eyeglasses, ill-fitting clothes and gray-tinged locks.

Langella and Olin also do equally well as evil rich folk who have a few over-the-top, broadly played moments, one including chest biting. Also praiseworthy is Darius ("The City of Lost Children") Khondji's superb cinematography, which adds an eerie visual sophistication to the project, Wojciech ("The Portrait of a Lady") Kilar's fine score, and the exceptional opening credits. Hervé De Luze's editing though leaves you wanting, but then the fault might lie with the footage Polanski supplied him with. There are also moments of Polanski's wit throughout, many of his barbs, both visual and verbal, aimed at the notoriousness of the wealthy. There's also middle-class Corso, winding up riding in the back of a truck filled with bovine. Earlier on he microwaves a TV dinner without taking it out of the box. A commentary on modern times' addiction to speed? Additionally, Balkan's megalomania and unstoppable pursuit of the devil is no doubt the director's wry commentary on what's become of the Balkan States. But in the end, reaching The Ninth Gate is just not worth the journey it takes getting there. This time, Rosemary's birth is stillborn.