The fun slows down way before nine.
Alexandre Aja's new film, The 9th Life of Louis Drax, is a melding of genres. One moment, it is a whimsical tale of an accident-prone boy and his brushes with the beyond. The next, it is a mystery, forcing the audience to ask some serious questions about why these accidents occur. Then, it is a dark family drama, one full of lies and deceit, of hidden meanings and ulterior motives. Not all of the genres are handled equally well and, as a result, the story—and audience experience—suffers. It is by no means a bad film, but it leaves one feeling that it could have been great.
At the center of everything is the boy in question, Louis Drax (Aiden Longworth). He lives with his mother, Natalie (Sarah Gadon), who is separated from Louis' father, Peter (Aaron Paul). Louis narrates much of the story for the audience, early on telling the viewer about the various accidents he's had over the course of his life (electrocution, poisoning, light fixtures falling on him, etc.). Aja depicts these accidents, horrible though they may sound, as comedy, and the film offers some great visuals for these accidents, particularly the electrocution.
It becomes clear as we learn of Louis' past that, in the present, he lies in a hospital in a coma from his latest accident – this time an unexplained fall off of a cliff. Louis' mother is there, terrified for her son, and a kind doctor, Allan Pascal (Jamie Dornan), is overseeing Louis' care. As for Peter, his absence is just one of the things the movie takes its time in divulging.
In fact, the movie takes its time to reveal all of its various secrets and all of the mysteries it holds at its core. It jealously guards them, parceling out tiny bits of information over the course of the film's length until, finally, it is ready to offer up the whole (or something closer to it).
While in some cases this sort of storytelling makes for wondrous revelations, it does not here. Most of the audience will draw the correct conclusions well before the film exposes them as certainty. Knowing where things are headed takes the wonder out of the film and makes the second half drag even when the tale introduces a new, more perplexing but perhaps less intriguing mystery. Most of the whimsy, most of the humor, occurs early on in the film, and once the main mystery's solution is clear (this ought not to be confused with it having been revealed), The 9th Life of Louis Drax has little left to give.
That which the film does present as it presses on towards its conclusion is all too familiar. Jealousies rear their head; loves are found and lost; and this wonderful tale turns into predictable melodrama. A little bit of supernatural mystery does little to abate the stale nature of the romance the film offers.
One element of the film that remains solid throughout are the performances delivered by Longworth and Oliver Platt, the latter playing a child psychiatrist Louis visits. Like much of the film itself, Platt's Dr. Perez is at turns brilliant and quizzical. He elicits laughs in his facial responses to Louis. Every scene with Platt is a joy to behold, no matter whom he is opposite.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for some of the other characters. In fact, one of the reasons the solution to the main mystery becomes clear is because of how poorly some of the characters are drawn. The choice the audience is left with is that the characters are either hiding a secret, two-dimensional, or both. As the film does so well in other places, this is a grave disappointment.
Yet, for all the distress over the tale's conclusion, for all the upset over some of the characters, The 9th Life of Louis Drax is more enjoyable than not. That sense of whimsy and wonder that it offers early on may peter out before the credits roll, but it engenders enough good will to have one leave the theater thinking about what they have witnessed.
The Verdict
Throughout the entirety of The 9th Life of Louis Drax, Alexandre Aja offers up some truly beautiful imagery. Louis' fall off the cliff may be a terrifying notion, but it is shown in slow-motion, with voiceover and the sense that even if it's scary, everything will be okay. Longworth and Platt are able to infuse their characters with a vibrant fullness. They are funny and serious, good separately and great together. The film does not match that greatness. It may start off exceptionally well, but by the end has become a bore, and no amount of ill-explained, late-to-the-party mysteries make up for it. It is a film which sets up to deliver answers but that continues long past the moment when it has any more of them to give.
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