Edson Oda’s debut film is something to behold
Around thirty minutes into this intriguing and somewhat initially baffling tale “Will” (Winston Juke) slowly closes a door on “Emma” (Zazie Beetz) who immediately asks Will the growingly obvious question:
“What’s it like to be alive?”
At which point first time full cinematic director Edson Oda brilliantly frames the two characters split by the very frame surrounding the newly closed door, but the juxtaposition couldn’t be any more starker. The asker of the question is full of the very life she seeks, abundant smiles amid a carefree attitude and bathed in the golden glow of colour. The recipient of the question is framed in darkened black and white and perfectly capturing the mood of the man struggling for an answer: slow, ponderous, methodical, purposeful and with barely a smile to be had. All of which is in stark contrast to the tale that now begins to really take off, for Will has experienced a life, and of being alive, whereby Emma hasn’t, and Will is seemingly the arbiter as to whether or not she ever will.
How can one character be alive or have experienced life whilst the other has not? Whilst denying that he is, Will is a “judge” for an as yet unborn soul that will replace a living soul recently departed, and a particular favourite selection of his many years ago. Will has been enchanted with the life of “Amanda” (Lisa Starrett) but along with his trusty aide and confidant “Kyo” (Benedict Wong), he constantly interviews candidates for the earthly role and those who fulfil his meticulous criteria after nine days in a remote, almost surreal yet out of place suburban house, get the winning ticket to find out for themselves what it feels like to be alive in the real world. Several candidates come and go with some staying longer than others, but as the souls are dismissed as being “unsuitable” they are granted a final “wish” before they depart from whence they came.
If all this sounds rather otherworldly, esoteric and existential, well that’s just a large part of the bigger whole as the entire film had an ethereal feeling and edge to it that I initially felt to be a kind of halfway house or limbo between worlds. I also considered the interviews initially to be akin to a life review before being given a second chance rather than the first chance and the replacement of a previous candidate. All of this becomes evident early on as despite living seemingly in the middle of absolutely nowhere and in a perfectly functional residential house, Will watches several old fashioned televisions at once and all of which contain previously successful candidates living their lives on VHS cassette tapes. Notes are meticulously taken, dates, places and memories are all shared with his only friend Kyo before the selection process begins again, and a nine day series of tests, initiations, observations and judgements are made.
Director Edson Oda had helmed several short films before this, his full length feature debut, and combined with his cinematographer Wyatt Garfield and production designer Dan Hermansen, they have created a wonder of a strange film that is brilliantly, brilliantly scored by Antonio Pinto’s haunting musical strings arrangements. Winston Juke is fantastic as the coldly distant Will and in a film resplendent in such beautiful juxtapositions is the dark to Benedict Wong’s radiant, gag telling beam of natural light. It’s mainly a three hander with the joyously uninhibited nature of Zazie Beetz’s effervescent character Emma, but several other candidates vie for that precious selection from Will, with “Kane” (Bill Skarsgard), “Alexander” (Tony Hale) and “Colleen” (Geraldine Hughes) particularly prominent.
I rather fell in love with this film as it passed the initial 30 minute mark and the question of what it felt like to be alive was raised. There is so much to admire and spoilers aside, Bill Skarsgard and Geraldine Hughes deserve special singular mentions for their performances and Geraldine features in one of the film’s many poignant final wishes as she rides through a virtual street on a bicycle and all arranged, created and curated by Bill and Kyo. The intricacy of some of the set designs are magnificent, giving the director free reign to really express his vision for this film (see the split screen example at the beginning of this article) but there are so many more and many involving the brilliant performance of Zazie Beetz as Emma.
The opening piece of music is of Amanda, captured on videotape in a violin concerto, and eerily reminiscent to the signature tune from Darren Aronofsky’s 2000 film Requiem for a Dream. It isn’t but it sounded so like it, it had the effect the tune I misheard had in Aronofsky’s film of over two decades ago. The beautifully melancholic violin solo felt portentous and ominous but nowhere near as the full on assault in Requiem for a Dream. I saw strange echoes of Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her and Vincent Ward’s 1998 film What Dreams May Come.
The melancholia is high but the pay off may surprise you. I was almost “gone” at the end, but such emotion for a film such as this wouldn’t be anything new for me!
Nine Days is a uniquely individual piece of art that may befuddle and annoy you, but rather I hope it beguiles and pleases you as it did me.
Thanks for reading. There are 50+film reviews of all stripes within my archives and I attach a favourite blog article on the cinematic career on the aforementioned Spike Jonze for your consideration:
Spike Jonze — 4 twisted love stories for your consideration
“Being John Malkovich”, “Adaptation”, “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Her”. All lovingly appreciated and spoiler free.medium.com