THE NINTH GATE

Johnny Depp, why did I doubt you?

Johnny Depp, why did I doubt you?  After three consecutive summers of daily 21 Jumpstreet reruns, followed by ten years of loyal fandom, how could I have thought The Ninth Gate would be weird? And I don't just mean Arizona Dream weird, I mean I avoided The Ninth Gate for a good five years, because I thought the naked devil girl on the back of the video box might scar me for life.

I'm sorry. What can I say? I admit that I had my reservations about a Roman Polanski film about hell. He IS pretty much the only guy who can't come to the Oscars without the FBI descending, but I shouldn't have judged him for that. He's still as good at his job as he was when he made Rosemary's Baby.

That still doesn't excuse me from doubting you, Johnny. I should have known that if anything alarming happened in the movie, you'd be alarmed too and we'd get through it together... you know, metaphorically speaking. I should have trusted your choice in projects, knowing that you wouldn't make a movie that wasn't smart, quirky, and original. Seriously, The Ninth Gate is classic. You play a sly rare-book dealer searching for the book that will conjure the devil. Pretty soon you run into freaky Satan worshippers and people around you start turning up dead. Yet there is a comical quality to the movie, something that keeps it from becoming too dark to be enjoyable. The soundtrack is about as menacing as Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, but the plot is actually quite unsettling. And to what genius effect: the road to hell is paved with good intentions!

It's just like they tell you in writing class—"show, don't tell". The movie makes the audience think for themselves. Although, the ending did remind me of that time in seventh grade when my friend and I watched Wall Street. She said she didn't get the ending, you know, where Charlie Sheen walks down the steps of the courthouse while the credits roll. She said she wanted to know what happened next, and I chided her. Did she want to see him go home and eat dinner? Did she want a play-by-play of the rest of his life? What?! But I confess I felt just a twinge of that at the end of The Ninth Gate. What really happened? I wanted it spelled out for me, and yet, it is so much better the way it is. I just want you to know that I trust your judgment, Johnny, and I promise never to question it again.