My favorite thing about going to the Sundance Film Festival is the hope of finding and watching great films that tell unique stories. Sometimes a film comes along that completely knocks me off my feet, and there’s a movie titled Nine Days that totally did that.
Nine Days is an incredibly powerful and moving film that tells the story of a man named Will, played by Winston Duke (Us), whose job it is to pick one soul from a list of candidates who will be born into a physical human body on Earth. Each of the candidates has nine days with Will to try and get that one spot. If a soul is not chosen, they disappear into nothing. Their whole existence is those days they have to spend with Will. That’s everything they will ever experience. It’s really quite a unique concept.
Will also spends his days watching the lives of the people he’s previously chosen. He watches them on old tube TV and records moments of their lives on VHS. There is one who he is particularly fond of. A woman prodigy who is one of the world’s great violinists. He is waiting for the day of her big concert, and when the day arrives he and his friend watch as she drives to the concert hall and during that drive she starts to speed up and crashes the car, killing herself.
This is an absolutely devastating moment for Will, and it throws him into a depressed funk as he tries to figure out what happened and why she would kill herself because as he watched her live, he saw no signs that anything was wrong with her or that she was struggling.
At this point, five candidates start showing up to meet with Will to take the spot that was left by his prodigy, the one he had the highest aspirations for. This is a mixed group of souls, each with their own unique personalities, and they have to go through a series of interviews and tests with Will. One thing you need to know about Will is that he is a soul who did live a full life, and now this is what he does. His own life experiences affect his program and decisions.
As Will works with these individuals he begins to learn things about himself as one of the souls, played by Zazie Beats, challenges Will in a way he’s never been challenged before. She is a free and curious spirit that isn’t one to follow the rules or take Will’s lead. She questions him, and as someone who is asking the questions, he doesn’t like that.
Some of the other cast members of the film include Bill Skarsgård (It), Tony Hale (Arrested Development), and Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange). They all gave wonderful performances.
As the story plays out everything comes to a head. Everything that has happened and is happening to Will has meaning. There are so many things that happened in the film that moved my soul. It was quite emotional to watch, and I won’t ruin anything for you, but the ending of this film is one of the most beautiful endings ever and it made my heart swell with emotion.
Nine Days was easily one of the best films I’ve seen at the festival, and when it eventually is released I hope you take the time to watch it. It’s an incredible film.
Here’s the synopsis for the film:
What if being born is not the beginning but the goal? In a house distant from the reality we know, a reclusive man named Will interviews prospective candidates—personifications of human souls—for the privilege he once had: to be born. Five contenders emerge. During the course of nine days, Will tests each of them, but he can choose only one. The victor will be rewarded with a coveted opportunity to become a newborn in the real world, while the others will cease to exist—nine days is everything they’ll ever experience.
Supernatural, metaphysical, and packed with the deepest, most human emotions, this spiritual child of Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry will hit you in the head and the heart. Propelled by an extraordinary performance from Winston Duke as Will and buoyed by a stunning supporting cast of highly accomplished actors, Nine Days marks not only the feature debut but the cinematic birth of writer-director Edson Oda, a singular, visionary artist.
