Though The Nines doesn't solidify as well as writer/director John August would hope for, Ryan Reynolds's strong performance makes each of the film's intriguing segments worth watching.
Though The Nines doesn't solidify as well as writer/director John August would hope for, Ryan Reynolds's strong performance makes each of the film's intriguing segments worth watching.
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Average Rating: 3.4/5
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Writer/director John August ponders the metaphysical aspects of life and art in an episodic allegory that follows three artists as they embark on a soul searching journey of fate versus free will. When a troubled actor is placed under house arrest in "The Prisoner," his imagination begins to run wild due to the fact that his spirited publicist and cynical neighbor provide his only link to the outside world. Later, after the planes of reality fold in on themselves during the production of a
Project Greenlight-style show which documents the filming of a popular sitcom in "Reality Television," "Knowing" follows a successful video game designer and his family as they become stranded in the middle of nowhere due to automotive issues. Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, and Melissa McCarthy star in a drama that peels back the layers of reality to ask whether or not mankind really has any control over his ultimate fate. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Bright and vicious, desperate and cruel, the characters of the first two stories pop with a kind of nihilistic joie de vivre that makes you want to hug them and kill them at once.
August is on solid ground when he's riffing on Stephen King and celebrities, but he's stretching when he tries to be David Lynch, which would require a distinctly different kind of brain damage.
Em sua estréia como diretor de longas, August faz jus à inteligência de seu roteiro intrincado, criando uma história tensa e instigante que surpreende tanto como ficção quanto como reflexão metafísica/religiosa. Além disso, o elenco revela-se fortíssimo.
When I read that Ryan Reynolds was playing not one, but three characters in this movie -- one of whom is gay -- my ticket pretty much bought itself. They had me at 'himbo'.
Most of the action, such as it is, plays out behind the camera and in the back rooms off the set, as Hollywood types bicker, backbite and betray. Yawn.
Overall, I responded to The Nines as a sly Cronenbergian chess game of the mind. As impenetrable as it becomes, it's easy to perceive that this is straight-from-the-heart work from August.
Let's avoid such extremes, and note merely that he's made a film that's funny ha-ha as well as funny peculiar; an exercise in navel-gazing that tickles all the senses.
Susan: Do you feel like a man? Because I'll tell you a little secret - you're not. "Y9u never kn9w when y9ur number is up."The Nines is a very interesting film with a clever concept that seems to get too wrapped up in itself. John August seems to try too hard to confuse everyone throughout when just the idea in itself
would have been great. He tried to make the movie be all about the payoff at the end, when we find out what is going on. I just think it could have been a lot better had he gone about it another way.I did, however, moderately like the movie despite that. Ryan Reynolds is at his best and like I said before it is at least an interesting movie. I like how the movie used Hope Davis and Melissa McCarthy along with Reynolds in three different roles. That's not to say that I was totally sold on how everything in those three stories were brought together and summed up. This is hard movie to rate because I do really want to like it because of the idea and the three performances from Reynolds, Davis and McCarthy. Then again it's rather disappointing and never becomes as good or even great as it could and should have been.
August 25, 2011
Melvin White
Super Reviewer
Melissa McCarthy is one of the most adorable fat chicks ive seen in a while. Hope Davis will still be beautiful when the apocalypse comes. Ryan Reynolds finally makes a movie as good as himself.
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