The Nines

Taking cinemagoers down the rabbit hole requires skill. If you want to dump your audience into a mystery maze, you have to give them a way to get out. Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation) does, always dropping breadcrumbs to help you find your bearings, as does David Lynch (Mulholland Drive), frequently offering several exit routes, although you may need to retrace your steps a few times to find them. Even Michel Gondry (Science Of Sleep), who is prone to leave you without a map, at least makes his mazes so pretty you can’t help but be seduced by them.

This is the problem at the heart of The Nines - which so desperately wants to emulate this sort of off-the-wall cleverness and yet, ultimately, comes up short.

Ryan Reynolds is the central role in all three of the narrative strands offered up by writer/director John August. In the first, he plays Gary, a celebrity who has just gone spectacularly off the rails and been placed under house arrest, where he appears to be going slightly out of his mind with the help/hinderance of odd neighbour (Hope Davis) and exuberant publicist (Melissa McCarthy).

In the second, he plays Gavin, who seems inextricably linked to Gary. This time around, he is a TV show executive, trying to get a pilot turned into a series, while being the subject of a reality TV show himself.

Meanwhile, behind the door of plot number three lies Gareth, who may or may not be in the show Gavin was trying to make in plot number two and who, equally, could be a computer game designer.

Confused. You will be. And that’s before we even address the issue of the eponymous Nines (koalas are an eight, by the way). It really is all too much. Plus August cheats, relying heavily on a clumsy Mcguffin that has been virtually ignored since the beginning of the film to help him reach a ‘conclusion’.

While the first two incarnations of Reynolds hold the attention and hint at a creepy paranoia or possible breakdown that will ultimately come to a head, the third sees the plot tumble so far down the rabbit hole it breaks its leg and plunges the audience into the dark. As it limps to its conclusion, it feels like an opportunity wasted.