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Nine Days

Nine Days is a directorial debut from Brazilian Edson Oda, starring Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz and Bendict Wong. It's a pensive, fantasy film that explores what would occur if there were 'observers' of life, making decisions on who could or couldn't enter. Duke plays Will, the observer of around a dozen or so people, one of whom suddenly dies, leaving a 'position vacant' on earth. The process begins with neat intercutting of applicants, all quite different folk. One of them is extremely tardy and is about to be rejected until Wong's character, Kyo, pleads for a chance. This is Emma, played by Beetz, and she promptly becomes the heart of the film.

I was concerned that this would be a quasi-religious tract and it does centre on the idea of a higher power, but this is done in a thoughtful, even nuanced way. Wong ponders at one point that there may well be other watchers watching them, and so on. The 'job interviews' for a place on earth are just as squirm-inducing as a regular one - 'Should I have said that?', 'Is that the answer he wants?', 'Why is he wearing a vest?', etc. At times, the film strays into the dreaded twee forest but it usually manages to bring itself back with inventive touches from Oda and attention-holding performances from Beetz and Duke.

There are more questions than answers in Nine Days but that's to be expected from a film of this ilk. You can read it any way you like, ultimately.

Nine Days opens July 15th at Palace Cinemas and the Luna.

See also:

Beetz has a different kind of job interview in Deadpool 2 (2018), directed by David Leitch, and Frank Capra's It's Wonderful Life (1946) has Jimmy Stewart in limbo.

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