The Completion Forwards Principle [Nine Days film review]

How can a film which is essentially about a small group of individuals all interviewing for the same “job” be engaging, never mind entertaining? The answer is simple: by presenting a provocative story delivered by a fantastic ensemble cast.

On the surface, the applicants spend nine days being interviewed, during which time they discuss such diverse topics as morality, compassion, anger, sadness, joy, suicide, and what it means to truly be “alive.” Throughout the course of the film many other subjects are touched upon, subjects that will cause one to wonder about the meaning of life. Okay, so perhaps it sounds a bit more like a collegiate lecture than an entertaining film, but thanks to a wonderful cast and crisp direction, the film manages to amuse as well as provoke.

Rendered in a stark manner that emphasizes characters over action and locale (here it’s a barren clay desert on which sits a solitary frontier styled house), Nine Days offers up a lot of metaphysical food for thought. Yet despite all its inherent headiness, it narrowly avoids getting overly bogged down. Sure, sometimes the sheer amount of ideas being unleashed can feel as if you are being bombarded by an earnest mishmash of Psych 101, Sociology 101, Humanities 101, Philosophy 101, and Ethics 101, culled together into a broad reaching Cliff’s Notes on the key subjects from those courses; at times it feels as if writer/director Edson Oda is trying to cover too much ground, forcing too many ideas on us all at once. It can be a bit overwhelming, to be honest.

The assembled cast, however, overcomes this seemingly never-ending barrage and helps to keep things grounded. At the core is a wonderfull tour de force from Winston Duke as “Will”, the interviewer. The ever-beguiling Zazie Beets gives a captivating performance as the wild-eyed and inquisitive “Emma.” Rounding out the cast is the jovial, yet wise presence of Benedict Wong, the even-keeled delivery of BIll Skarsgard, a hyperactive blast from Tony Hale, and quiet, sensitive turns from both David Rysdahl and Arianna Ortiz.

Nine Days will keep your mind reeling and drifting off into myriad thought provoking tangents, but it should also entertain you thanks to the sheer bravado of the actors involved and the finely tuned nuances of the story itself.