I am a fan of Johnny Depp because he creates such convincing characters. True to any Roman Polanski film, there's tension at the start, like you are peeping into the lives on celluloid. The quest to find the three books (Ninth Gate) reminded me of a similar book I was reading The Club Dumas (Arturo Perez-Reverte). You have Johnny Depp's character criss-crossing back and forth Toledo, Sintra and Paris in the quest of finding the "original copy". Quite predictable than most of Polanski film, bordering to laughable at times. For the love of me, I'd watch the Tenant and that You came to 1/2 of the film expecting a certain build-up yet you end up wanting more, and by the end of the film, you would've felt you've wasted most of the 2:15 of your life.
Needless to say the film has its merits, minus the distracting soundtrack...on supposedly, "thrilling parts". Depp ended up having sex (with The Devil's messenger? "The Girl"). I laugh.
Its one of those films where I fell in love with its poster and regretted seeing it afterwards.
A few shots worth noting is a close-up shot with Depp and the camera slowly moving towards him as he examines Book3 and the breathtaking view of the castle, great recreation from the book :).
Though, the film left me feeling like watching Da Vinci Code. Felt like it had a much much slower pacing and a nothing to look forward to, except Depp is better at it than Tom Hanks :D
I will however, finish the book :) soon.
