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Movie Review: Nine Days

Mike Tyrkus

Few feature-film debuts have proven to be as impressive and promising of a great talent as has Nine Days by filmmaker Edson Oda.

Nestled within a lone house amidst a desolate landscape, lives a man, Will (Winston Duke), who spends his days literally monitoring several people going about their lives on a number of television screens whereon these lives are played out as first-person narratives. When one of these subjects suddenly passes away, Will begins interviewing several people to determine which of them will be afforded the chance to be born into the world thereby taking the place of the soul that was lost.

Writer/director Oda, makes a startling and ambitious feature-film debut after producing a number of award-winning short films. This proves to be one of those rare films that allows itself to unfold gradually, almost effortlessly, rather than bombard you with purpose and intent from the beginning. As a result, the emotional impact it imparts is far more potent than it would have been otherwise. Oda proves to be not only a gifted storyteller here, but a striking visual artist as well as his depiction of the soul waystation is both familiar and hauntingly obtuse. There is an elegance at work here as the story plays out. You may find yourself thinking you know where it is headed and, even if you are correct, you probably won’t be prepared for the emotional impact it ultimately has.

Zazie Beetz and Winston Duke in “Nine Days.” © Wyatt Garfield, Nine Days 5, LLC.

As Will, Duke is the centerpiece of the film and he carries it well. Throughout, we are given various elements about his past as he proves to be far more complex and human than initially perceived. Will’s confidant, and co-worker of sorts, Kyo (played by Benedict Wong) proves to be the perfect emotional counterpart to Will’s more logical, matter-of-fact character. As the souls Will is interviewing, all of the players are superb, though standouts do include Zazie Beetz (as Emma) and Tony Hale (as Alexander).

Dan Hermansen’s production design creates a world that is simultaneously otherworldly yet strikingly familiar which proves to be the crux of the success of the entire endeavor as there is something so complex (yet simple) about this film that you may feel it speaking to you emotionally in ways that transcend the experience of simply watching a film. Combined with a haunting score by Antonio Pinto and Oda’s impressive debut portends of even greater things to come from such a gifted artist.

Although some may be hesitant to initially entertain a film with such a seemingly obtuse concept, Nine Days will reward anyone who does so with one of the best films of the year.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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