Direction: Edson Oda
Country: USA
Have you ever thought about the possibility of a psychological evaluation in a pre-life state? Well, the Brazilian-born writer-director Edson Oda did.
His feature debut, Nine Days, was executive produced by Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich; Her) and tells about a nine-day selection process - including behavioral assessment, interviews and tasks - of several unborn souls considered to fill a vacancy to become a living person. All procedures and evaluations take place in a house located in a desolate place, and the judge of everything is Will (Winston Duke), whose painful past as a human being suddenly surfaces because of a distinctive, positive and free-spirited candidate named Emma (Zazie Beetz). This very perceptive woman never answers his questions but has a special chemistry with and the support of Will’s assistant, Kyo (Benedict Wong), a soul who had never experienced human life.
The international cast is very strong from top to bottom and the plot’s interesting concept takes a route that goes from intriguingly spiritual to deliberately theatrical. This last part, however, is when the film loses some strength. Yet, even getting a little tiresome and hokey toward the end, the ride is not that bad if this is the kind of psychological unearthly mysteries you are after.
Everything feels very human and surprisingly artistic in this simplistic depiction of ‘life’ before life. We shall all agree in the end that to live is a blessing, but can be painful too.
