Artist The Ninth Gate

Upon its release in 1999, the supernatural thrillerThe Ninth Gate was seen as another in a string of head-scratching missteps from director Roman Polanski. Then Polanski made The Pianist, won the Oscar for Best Director, and his disreputable ’90s oeuvre began to look better in the reflected light. Now, seen out of the context of numerous other end-of-the-world action-horror films at the turn of the millennium, The Ninth Gate looks much livelier and wittier. It’s actually a stylish European spin on Biblical Armageddon, highlighted by an endearingly fussy performance by Johnny Depp as an adventurous bibliophile who tries to keep an ancient text from falling into the wrong hands. 

Updated 01/13/2010