Masterful suspense movie !. Review on The Ninth Gate Movie

Suspenseful masterpiece ! It's been quite a while since this movie has been released but I since I have discovered mouthshut.com recently, here's my opinion and why I would recommend this movie for the serious fan of the thriller genre.

The movie starts of with Dean Corso (Johnny Depp), a man with little scruples but a genius book collector nonetheless. He is propositioned by Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to verify the authenticity of a rare 14th century book on Devil worship ''The Nine Gates'', which is in his posession. The book itself will pique the interest of the viewer. Roman Polanski skillfully reveals bits and pieces of the book's history. The book's author was, it is revealed put to death for heresy because he reveals that part of the book was written by the devil himself ! All the copies have been destroyed except for 3, one of which is in balkan's posession ... and Corso is given the task of verifying whether the other two are genuine. Corso is even given the addresses of the other owners who are in Europe. The task seems too simple but then strange things start happening .....

Corso's partner is horribly murdered ... a strange girl keeps following Corso .... the previous owner of Balkan's book seems hell-bent of getting the book back ..... Murder and mayhem seem to follow Corso wherever he goes. The book itself seems to have a power of its own. Corso starts to suspect that he is on a mission whose motives are not completely revealed to him ....

What I liked about this movie was that there is genuine feeling of suspense throughout the movie. Roman Polanski, true to his stature, does not resort to ''boo'' scare tactics to build up and maintain the suspense. The flip side is that this is not a really scary movie and more of a supernatural suspense thriller. The action is fast-paced and the viewer will have a sense of trepidation about what will happen next. I must admit that the ending was a bit abrupt, and did not make much sense because it is totally open-ended.

As such, the movie has to be watched for its suspense and the feeling of the thrill and not that it makes a lot of sense in the end !! The performances are great with Johnny Depp on top as always and Frank Langella providing a sense of evil and plays the role of the manipulator to the hilt. The only jarring performance is of the girl following Jonny Depp. If her performance had been more wooden we might have seen a tree emoting. Turns out she is Roman Polanski's wife in real life .... (who says there is no bloody vasheela in Hollywood !) On the whole, one of the better thrillers I hope you will like !!