![]() ![]() Spending tireless hours in a dimly-lit house surrounded by emptiness in every direction, Will watches the lives of the souls he selected unfold in grainy first-person footage while scribbling notes about each one, tracking the days and making note of every high point and hardship. The opening act has a striking immersive quality as the purgatorial setting gradually comes together. Oda’s ambitious feature debut works overtime to maintain its visionary conceit. Somewhere in between them, however, it settles into a dreary slog bogged down by repetitive existential blather over the course of two hours, as if enmeshed in a soul-searching journey of its own. ![]() ![]() Oda’s script is rich with bold ideas, beginning with the surreal notion of entire lives unfolding through VHS tapes and climaxes with a hyperbolic recitation of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” It’s an enchanting fantasy bookended with genuine emotional beats. Writer-director Edson Oda’s innovative drama revolves around the tireless plight of Will ( Winston Duke), a jaded middle-manager trapped in a purgatorial cycle of interviewing souls for the opportunity of life. “ Nine Days” takes a ludicrous premise and plays it straight. ![]()
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