You are here: Home » Features » 52 Pick-Up » 52 Pick-Up, Week 8: The Nines

52 Pick-Up, Week 8: The Nines

Jose Guzman | Mar 01, 2011 | 1 comment

My previous 52 Pick-Up choice, Sunshine, was proof enough that Chris Evans is capable of the range needed to pull of Captain America. I felt it fitting to give Ryan Reynolds, the man who would be Green Lantern, a chance to prove the haters wrong with one of his “out of the box” roles. Who knows, maybe Reynolds will be a decent Green Lantern? I, personally, am not really hating on that fact the Reynolds is playing Hal Jordan, but instead, my main issue with what we’ve seen from Green Lantern thus far is the CGI suit. I get the whole “organic” angle that they are going for, but there has to be a better way to go about doing it rather than making the whole suit and mask CGI. If Batman’s cape or Thor’s hammer were added in post instead of using a real cape or prop hammer, it would kill the mood and ruin the movie-going experience. Now that my Green Lantern rant is finished, on to the review.

To be fair to Mr. Reynolds, and to show that there are no hard feelings over the decisions made regarding the forthcoming Green Lantern, I went back to my faithful stack of 4 for $20 Blockbuster movie deals that I have bought and collected, unwatched, over the years, and chose the 2007 drama/fantasy/mystery flick, The Nines, written and directed by Big Fish screenwriter John August.

The Nines is split up into three stories, the first involving Reynolds as a troubled actor on house arrest. The second narrative shows Reynolds as a television writer starring on a reality show about trying to get his show picked up. Lastly, Reynolds plays a married, successful video game designer. Each individual story is like watching three stand-alone short films that all tie together in a Tarantino-esque way, without overtly ripping off the Pulp Fiction formula. Reynold’s costars are Hope Davis, Melissa McCarthy, and Dakota Fanning lil’ sis, Elle Fanning, and they all play characters in each of the three stories that are important to the lives of all three of Reynolds’ characters. These characters hold key information to the mysterious link between Reynolds’ characters and “The Nines”.

Just as with Green Lantern’s suit, this wasn’t what I was expecting it to be, but unlike the suit, I don’t hate the movie. The Nines isn’t a bad film by any means, but it is certainly more of an acquired taste and not likely to have mainstream appeal. For the most part, I was intrigued with what the mystery of “The Nines” could be, and why the number nine played such an important significance to each of the stories. However, there were some moments where I asked myself, “What am I watching?” Those moments were primarily during the openings of the first two stories, because as the audience, you don’t really know which direction the story is going in, and at times, I wasn’t sure what movie I was watching. It had been a while since I first saw the trailer, and the movie was vastly different from what I thought I was getting into.

He certainly wasn’t an Oscar-contender for his three headed role in The Nines, but Reynolds delivered solid performances across all three narratives. Even after seeing him in a role outside of his wheel house, I still think that he’s a better Deadpool than he will be a Green Lantern. Neither the performances, or the film as a whole, blew me away like that of In Bruges, but The Nines does give you an ending that makes it all worthwhile. Ill put it this way: I liked the movie, but Im not going to run around telling people that they need to watch it. Even though there’s a list of movies that I could suggest over The Nines, it’s an interesting twist for Reynolds. I would like to take in a viewing of 2010′s Buried before Green Lantern hits theaters, but I don’t think that any amount of awesomehouse acting by Ryan Reynolds will be enough to keep my mind off of how much I don’t like the CGI suit.

The bottom line with The Nines is: While it’s a clever film that hooks you as you try to unravel the mystery of The Nines, it’s not for everyone. I would recommend it for a stay-in movie night with your someone special, as it’s a movie you both might dig.