CNS Movie Review: 9

9

By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- In 2004, animator Shane Acker won the gold medal at the Student Academy Awards for his short film "9," his thesis for a master's degree from UCLA. Acker's expansion of his somber adventure, also called "9" (Focus/Relativity), is the director's feature debut and registers as an artistically accomplished but intellectually problematic fantasy.

The sci-fi story concerns a war to the death between humanity, led by a dictator, and a collection of advanced machines that had turned on the human race and hunted it to extinction.

Coming to life amid the post-apocalyptic ruins, the doll-like titular creature (voice of Elijah Wood) -- made up of bits of material and metalwork, and identified by the number painted on his back by his now-deceased human creator -- is unaware of his origins and bewildered by his surroundings.

An encounter with a similar being called #2 (voice of Martin Landau) is initially reassuring; #2 explains some of the circumstances, and helps the previously mute #9 to activate his voice. But, in the first of a number of unsettling scenes driven by computer-generated special effects and much too frightening for younger viewers, the new friends are attacked by a giant mechanical monster, which carries the terrified #2 off in its clutches.

#9's loyal rescue efforts eventually bring him into contact with a band of survivors led by lordly #1 (voice of Christopher Plummer). His followers include good-hearted engineer #5 (voice of John C. Reilly), fierce female warrior #7 (voice of Jennifer Connelly) and #8 (voice of Fred Tatasciore), #1's beefy enforcer.

Domineering and overly cautious #1 -- who makes his headquarters in a ruined church, wears a hat similar to a miter and carries a crosier-shaped staff -- represents a naysaying version of religious faith which Pamela Pettler's script implicitly contrasts with the enlightening science available in a damaged library where scholarly but nonverbal twins #3 and #4 carry out research aimed at defeating the mechanized predators.

This false dichotomy is later modified by an affirmation of the need for spiritual values to control technology and, near the very end, by the heroic growth in #1's personality. And, of course, the dangers of science run amok are apparent from the start.

Still, this chronicle of a new dark age, in which #9's pluck and resourcefulness are consistently pitted against #1's gloomy attachment to outworn custom, requires mature deliberation by spiritually well-grounded viewers.

The film contains complex religious themes, moderate action violence and frequent menace. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Mulderig is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.

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Copyright (c) 2009 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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