The visionary world seen in the new animated feature "9" was first created by Shane Acker while he was a student at UCLA. It was nominated for a 2006 Oscar for best short subject. Acker has expanded his early work to 79 minutes, but in reality, some things should not be longer than they need to be. "9" is one of those things that should have been left short.
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In a time that seems to be the Fascist era of the early 1940s, humans have created technology that has turned against them, and the earth has undergone apocalyptic turmoil. It's a by now too familiar landscape -- vast stretches of nothing, skeletal shells of buildings, a wasteland of smoke and debris. I did like the use of newsreels to indicate the human chaos that led to disaster.
Somewhere in this seething cauldron of misery and regret, little creatures are lurking. They look like burlap-clad teardrops. Over the course of the movie, we will meet burlap dolls 1 through 9, although some of these strange-talking "puppet people" have smoother clothing. More often than not, their eyes are bits and pieces of optical things, such as binocular lenses. They will attempt to recover from the devastation of their bombed-out cityscapes and generate a new society. At least I think that's what "9" is about.
That's because, as visually arresting as the film is -- and it is very good looking -- the story is muddy and convoluted and often downright boring.
Credit for the screenplay goes to Pamela Pettler, who is an acolyte of director Tim Burton, one of the primary producers of this movie. Acker, who deserves kudos for his visuals, gets a story credit. I'm guessing he was overruled on some story ideas by the great weird Oz himself, Burton. That's what happens when you get to play in the big arena. Everybody thinks they know more than you do about your own vision.
Basically, the filmmakers have made a movie about a strange life form that exists in a world where humans exist only in memory. But who are these burlap critters? Somebody made them. An adult? A child? We see hands sewing one at the start.
Therefore, we've got these burlapians or burlapazoids or whatever you want to call them, and their sole purpose in the picture is to be fodder for mechanical monsters that resemble nothing more than the illustrations from H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds." But you can always count on spunky people, or eager burlap dolls, to revolt against the ogres. That's the movie.
What should have been an eerie film about oddities struggling to stay alive becomes instead another relentless action movie. If one of the burlap critters gets hurt, the others will urge it to recover. It does and they fight on, only to have another burlap critter get hurt, and it in turn will be urged to fight on. Which it does. And so it goes.
Acker has created a great look, but he should have demanded better from Pettler and Burton. The characters look alike, but you can tell them apart because they have their ID numbers stitched on their backs. And their facial expressions and visual characteristics are different. But it's the voices that set them apart. Unfortunately, the reading of the uninteresting words isn't that interesting either. None of the voice actors deliver as strongly as they should have.
Elijah Wood is the youthful No. 9, Christopher Plummer is the fearful leader No. 1, Martin Landau is No. 2, John C. Reilly is No. 5, Crispin Glover is No. 6, and the most boring actress on the planet, Jennifer Connelly, is No. 7. She can't even read energetically. Since none of the critters have sexual accoutrements, there's a missed opportunity to explore gender identity -- No. 7 is a female, after all -- in a world where gender really doesn't mean anything.
With its simplistic dialogue, "9" fails to enthuse. This is typical contemporary science fiction -- machines belch out terror, but the writing avoids philosophy and sociology. None of what we hear is smart stuff. And there's no sharp examination of the point of the movie. Of course, that's because there doesn't seem to be a point.
And I've got news for Burton and Pettler, and even Acker, animated explosions look the same as live-action explosions. Only with these bombs bursting in air do the visuals turn a tad mundane, which is unfortunate. It's all about cheesy, cheap thrills. And lazy filmmaking on some levels.
As you read this, the Toronto International Film Festival is in full swing, and I'll have my interpretation in an upcoming issue of this newspaper. Now in its 34th year, TIFF, as it's known, is the most important film festival in North America and second only to Cannes in France. More often than not, it's at Toronto that many Oscar nominees get their first whiff of serious attention and early buzz.
This year's gathering of movie fanatics has 271 feature films from 64 countries, nearly 100 press conferences and special events on the schedule, and myriad red carpet gala premieres and parties. But the good news is that ordinary folks can experience the festival and rub shoulders with the famous, wannabe famous and desperate-to-be famous.
All it takes is a visit to Toronto and a stop at the box offices of theaters showing films -- they are all over town -- or one of the special festival box offices. If you're not fussy about what you see, you will be able to see something. Certainly, two movies and probably three during a single day-trip.
Movie stars and important directors are always in abundance at TIFF. If you don't want to see films, but are ga-ga over celebrities, just hang out outside the key hotels like the Four Seasons or the Sutton Place. Most of the star-sighting action takes place in the Bloor-Bay-Yorkville neighborhood. The Bistro 990, at 990 Bay St., is the unofficial watering hole of choice for almost everybody, and it's accessible to all. The evening red carpet galas (usually two a night) are at Roy Thompson Hall on King Street downtown. If you don't see any stars there, then you're doing something wrong.
This year's guest list includes, but is not limited to, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jack White and Meg White of The White Stripes, Demi Moore, Michael Caine, Danny Glover, Michael Douglas, Drew Barrymore, Danny DeVito, Naomi Watts, Werner Herzog, Nicolas Cage, David Duchovny, Daniel Ellsberg, Colin Firth, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, Robert Duvall, Ricky Gervais, Oprah Winfrey, Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen and Clive Owen.
Movies scheduled to be shown include "Leaves of Grass," "Solitary Man," Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces," "The Joneses," "Whip It," the Charles Darwin biography "Creation," Steven Soderbergh's "Up in the Air," Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," "The White Stripes Under Great Northern Lights," "An Education," "The Young Victoria," Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story," the Coen brothers' "A Serious Man," and my favorite title, "The Men Who Stare At Goats," starring Clooney, Jeff Bridges and Ewan McGregor. Two films at TIFF will open in the Buffalo area very quickly, Jane Campion's "Bright Star," about poet John Keats, and "The Informant."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | September 15 2009 |