Herald rating: * * *
Running time: 132 mins
Rental: Today
Review: Ewan McDonald
Roman Polanski’s satanic thriller stars Johnny Depp as Dean Corso, a dodgy rare-book dealer who’s hired by Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), a millionaire collector who owns a copy of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of the Shadows. This
book was published in Venice in 1666 by Aristide Torchia, who adapted the engravings from the work of Satan and was burned by the Spanish Inquisition, according to legend. Two other copies survive and Balkan wants Corso to track them down.
The owner who sold his copy to Balkan then hanged himself. His widow (Lena Olin) has an unwholesome interest in getting his reading material back. Corso meets the other two owners, a Portuguese aristocrat (Jack Taylor) and an elderly Parisian baroness (Barbara Jefford). As Corso moves from one bizarre collector to another, he narrowly avoids several threats on his life. He notices he’s being followed by a young woman (Emmanuelle Seigner).
Depp — looking far darker than in Chocolat — and the perennially spooky Polanski create an atmosphere of evil that builds as each piece of the mystery is uncovered. But where are the secrets leading us and the book hunter? Devil of a good story that might have been better with less melodrama and fewer minutes.
