Coming to Bluray from director Edson Oda and Sony Picture Classics is a tale of life, mystery, and even love learning it all in NINE DAYS.
In an interesting position of the universe, Will (Winston Duke) judge’s souls before they are sent to a human being. Living in a quiet house in the middle of nowhere, he spends his time researching and interviewing soul-candidates.
When he is not doing that, Will watches people that are living their daily lives. One in particular is Amanda. She is a violinist that plays music that touches Will, although its hard to see it by his demeanor. On the day she is to give a big recital, Will is joined by Kyo (Benedict Wong), another who also has the same job as Will but a more outgoing judge.
What happens while they wait is something that sends will into disbelief. That does not stop him from interviewing candidates to take Amanda’s place. As each candidate comes into his office, he tells them the process takes nine days and all the while taking copious notes to their responses.
Emma (Zazie Beetz) has caught Will’s attention as she seems to show an interesting in what is happening without really caring how the process works. But, Will is not going to be distracted, even when Kyo brings someone to him that shows him more about Amanda. Refusing to react, he is then subjected to Emma’s curiosity and candidate Alex’s (Tony Hale) calling him out.
As Will begins to send candidates away, the choice becomes even narrower and so does Will’s perceptions. Making a decision based on emotions he refuses to accept; a moment comes where Will has to accept the choice he has made.
Duke as Will gives us a mysterious character to follow and be totally curious about. Even as his story unfolds, Will is a mystery wrapped in an enigma because he calmly does not give anything away about his ‘life’ or how the process of the 9-days works. The moments of emotion that he does give are powerful and moving. Duke may be a judge of soul-candidates but there is something much deeper that he brings to this role.
Wong as Kyo is the yang to Will’s yin. He is full of emotion, says what he feels, is curious about the people they are dealing with and has an instant response of the event surrounding Amanda. He takes an instant liking to Emma and again, is not afraid to show it. Trying to help Will deal with his unfeeling-ness is like a second job for Kyo and he is more successful than he realizes.
Beetz as Emma is a free-spirit spirit that takes the nine days as it comes. She sees the joy in everything and is curious about the world she is in now and not whether she will see another world soon. She is lovely and entertaining with a laugh that is contagious. Watching Beetz’s character work her unassuming magic is everything and Emma is pure gold.
Hale and Skarsgard are the two candidates that are so interesting to watch because, like Will, they are hard to read most of the time. Hale is willing student to the process and does give Will something to thing about. Skarsgard is a candidate that does not give anything but in his responses tells everything – kind of scared me a bit too.
Other cast include David Rysdahl as Mike, Arianna Ortiz as Maria, Geraldine Hughes as Colleen, Erika Vasquez as Luiza, Perry Smith as Anne, and Bill Skarsgard as Kane.
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The Special Feature includes THE MAKING OF NINE DAYS.
NINE DAYS is a stunning and powerful look at belief and the ‘process’ of the soul. It is truly a beautiful film to just sit back and let it come to you piece by piece. It challenges us, in a great way, to think about who would we be, how would be handle the nine days?
It is a desire to be born but each candidate has a different way of wanting it because they are in different stages of thought. The questions Will asks also asks us; how would we answer? Do we think about the spirituality of it all or the metaphysical implications of the nine days? Yes, NINE DAYS will have everyone watching asking so many questions.
Outside of Will’s house may seem desolate but to me, it is beautiful with sunsets that are stunning and even the characters walking around at night is lovely. Duke’s recitation of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself is a celebration of the beauty of the entire film from start to finish.
In the end – would you be chosen?
