Movie review: 9

by John P. Meyer

Apropos of nothing, other than in testament to the peculiar things one notices by watching a lot of movies every week, I have this to report about Shane Acker's visually sumptuous new animated feature, 9: It's the third film I've seen this year that opens with a scene involving stitching. As in, sewing. (Ref. Coraline and Bright Star, the latter of which releases later this month.)

Another aside (honestly, I will get around to talking about the actual movie before too much longer) -- this film project brings together two hitherto unrelated creative talents on the production side of things: Tim Burton (Corpse Bride; The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch; Day Watch). Tim and Timur make a logical team, judging by the darkness, literally and figuratively, on display in their respective films -- and they continue cultivating their dark habits in the present film.

9 expands on an Oscar nominated short created by digital effects/animation wizard Acker back in 2005, with set and character designs remaining virtually unchanged from the 10-minute original. In a rusty, retro, post-apocalyptic setting, a rag doll awakens to sentience years after his scientist maker and the rest of the human race have been wiped out by -- nah, that would be telling. Let's just say they've been wiped out, and leave it at that.

9 (voiced by Elijah Wood) wanders from the ex-scientist's ruined lab into a frightening, detritus-strewn urban wasteland, where he soon meets up with 2 (Martin Landau), an enthusiastic adventurer who greets 9 as a welcome comrade in arms. But 9 and 2 have barely spoken two words before another denizen of the darkness interrupts their fortuitous acquaintanceship -- with extreme mechanical prejudice.

Enter 5 (John C. Reilly), who's left kith and kin behind in the safety of a shattered cathedral to find out where 2's gotten himself off to. He (5) shepherds 9 back to the Sanctuary, where crotchety, worriesome 1 (Christopher Plummer) lords it over the remaining numerals with a patched-together Bishop's mitre and a staff topped by half of a rusty iron gear.

1 is convinced (and succeeds in convincing everyone else) that the best hope for doll-kind is for them to keep a low profile and wait things out, hoping for the best. But 9 thinks 2 might still be alive (after a fashion), and attempts to scare up interest in a rescue expedition ...

... Which leads 9 and his expeditionary companions to a very Mordor-like factory complex, home of The Machine -- whose backstory we glean through vintage news reports. Meanwhile, a relic discovered by 2, then recovered by 9, is unwittingly delivered into the -- um -- hands of The Machine, leading to a resurgence of all powers machine-like.

To add a thusfar-absent romantic element to the story line, Acker's screenwriter Pamela Pettler introduces a "female" character to the proceedings in the person of 7 (Jennifer Connelly). 7 makes a dramatic entrance during the factory expedition, coming across as a kind of sock puppet ninja warrior. Could it come as any sort of surprise that she and 9 hit it off? (Nope.)

While there's no disputing that 9 is a beautiful movie to watch, its feature length fleshing-out of Acker's 2005 short does little to add to its emotional impact. In fact, the conferral of speaking parts to the characters results in a diminishment of the eerie mystery that permeates the totally voiceless short. What we're left considering in its place (story-wise) is a rather maudlin moralistic sermon on the evils of technology versus the fragile, yet paradoxically resilient, nature of the human spirit.

Kind of like Battlestar Galactica without the spaceships.