Sundance 2007

The Nines

Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis and Melissa McCarthy play different roles in the three successive tales whose true relationship to each other is only hinted at until the last few minutes. It's then that "The Nines" doesn't so much falter as go off in the kind of existential hypothesis that is very difficult to incorporate into a dramatic format.

Still, give August credit for going out on a limb -- and not falling off it like Darren Aronofsky's turgid recent "The Fountain." There's nothing dull in "The Nines," much of which is as sharp and original as any U.S. narrative at Sundance this annum.

Part One, entitled "The Prisoner," cuts to the chase: After his girlfriend leaves him, popular TV actor Gary (Reynolds) sets the clothes she left afire on the backyard BBQ. Later his whole house burns down, but Gary doesn't notice: He's already off on an epic bender of drinking and driving.

Resulting crash, arrest and public scandal require micro-managerial intervention from Margaret (McCarthy), his agency's professional minder of run-amuck celebrities. She sets him up to serve his house-arrest term in an absentee owner's splendid Beverly Hills manse.

At the manse, Gary has nothing to do, but distractions arise, including sexually forward next-door-neighbor Sarah (Davis). Then there are the creepy, poltergeist-y disturbances in the house itself: The number nine suddenly seems to pop up everywhere Gary looks.

After this chapter ends on a mysterious, CGI-enhanced note, "Part Two: Reality" introduces the same house's owner Gavin (Reynolds), a hugely successful screenwriter-cum-producer.

The insomniac, workaholic scribe's latest project is "Knowing," a supernatural drama (pitched as "Rosemary's Toddler") he wrote specially for longtime best friend Melissa McCarthy (playing herself) -- and for which she's left her (real-life) long-running series "Gilmore Girls." (Post-Sundance screening, August noted that he and she have a similar relationship in real life, and that this seg is more or less about him.)

Packaged as an episode of fake reality skein "Behind the Screen," this midsection follows neurotic Gavin through pilot production. His liaison to the all-powerful network programming boss is Drama Development VP Susan (Davis), who says she wants to help him get the show on the air.

But she seems to have a hidden agenda, too. Like Gary, Gavin begins to perceive something is amiss, with a final neat twist calling into question all we've seen before.

After a brief split-screen interlude, "Part Three: Knowing" presents videogame designer Gabriel (Reynolds), wife Mary (McCarthy) and their mute daughter (Elle Fanning) on a walk in the hills. Returning to their car, they find the battery is dead. Backtracking alone, Gabriel meets hiker Sierra (Davis), and things take an increasingly alarming, surreal turn.

Resolution and coda are not film's strongest points; they lack the humor hitherto threaded throughout, and address big questions that "The Nines" can't quite pull off, clever as the lead-up has been.

That said, the mix of authorial imagination and precision on display is most impressive, and in his first such effort August directs with as much alert confidence as he writes.

McCarthy and Davis are first-rate in roles that vary tonally but also have some significant overlaps. Reynolds gets a chance here like he's never had before -- though he's been consistently good-to-excellent in good-to-awful movies -- and he's sensational. Since it's long been clear he can do comedy, and it seems his dramatic range is broad as well, the question now isn't when he'll become an A-list star, but rather what kind he'll turn out to be.

Prod package is excellent all around, with stylish design contribs and sharp tech ones.

Camera (color, HD), Nancy Schreiber; editor, Douglas Crise; music, Alex Wurman; music supervisor, Julianne Jordan; art director, E. Colleen Saro; set decorator, Christopher L. Marsteller; costume designer, Molly Elizabeth Grundman; sound, Richard Adrian; digital f/x, Look Effects; assistant director, Mark G. Mathis. Reviewed at Sundance Film Fest (Premieres), Jan. 22, 2007. Running time: 99 MIN.
 

With: Elle Fanning, Dahlia Salem, David Denman, Octavia Spencer, Ben Falcone.