DVD Review: The 9th Life of Louis Drax (Lights, Camera, Action!)

The 9th Life of Louis Drax (UK Rating: 15)

Louis Drax is an accident prone young boy. At only nine years old, he's almost died at least once a year since he was born. This time, though, he fell off a cliff and is now in a comatose state. The film's best moments come from his dialogue in this state with some sort of imaginary friend/monster/hero. The dialogue delves into the nature of existence, and Louis seems to be more than capable, at his age, of holding his own in these conversations.

Most of the film follows Dr. Pascal (Jamie Dornan), a typical "believer" type who sees the good in everyone he meets and believes there might be more to what happened to Louis than perhaps first announced. He's joined in that theory by a detective, Dalton (Molly Parker), whose only real job seems to be to condescendingly sneer at any comments she finds stupid. Dr. Pascal, meanwhile, follows a tradition as old as film itself - easily forgettable lead character who keeps the more memorable characters around him in perspective. He acts as a cohesive bond, bringing all of the characters together but being wildly unimpressive himself. This doesn't seem to Dornan's fault, however, but more so the fault of the script.

Oh, how wonderfully diluted and unbelievable that script is, too. It jumps from giving the audience Louis (Aiden Longworth), who delivers believable, but unlikeable lines, a good percentage of which are about how fat Fat Sanchez is, through to trying to make people believe that Pascal might be so naïve - basically, it borders on idiocy. It commits even more egregious sins, the primary of which being that most of the lines in the film, especially where Louis's mother Natalie and Dr. Pascal are concerned, are just things no one would ever say.

The 9th Life of Louis Drax is, truth be told, a profoundly boring film. While the moments spent in Dr. Sanchez's office provide a handful of laughs, intentional mind you, and Aaron Paul's position in the film is genuinely heartbreaking, most of the time is spent exploring what a nincompoop Pascal ends up being, and how irritating Natalie is. Spoiler alert, there's a sex scene that comes after a revelation that's remarkably unsexy. In fact, it's the total opposite, it's sad and gut-churning, and yet, the sex scene remains. Apparently, men are so incapable of turning down sex that they will ignore literally anything that's been said to them in the pursuit of getting it. It's insulting and Natalie is equally insulting to women, although to explain why would give away the film's unremarkable and insanely predictable conclusion.

Speaking of that conclusion, while it's very easily figured out as early as the movie's 40-minute mark, it's handled very well. It manages to maintain its focus and deliver a climatic and beautiful ending. If only the film had ended there... but it doesn't, and almost immediately jumps off the rails again to try and shock viewers. It fails to even do that, however, and induces an eye roll that's Oscar-worthy on its own.

3/10

Bad

Beautiful cinematography and a handful of good, yet underutilised characters, can't save The 9th Life of Louis Drax from it's terrible dialogue and largely unlikeable characters. Even the ending, which could have easily had most of its content gutted, fails to stick the landing, slipping from grace and landing sturdily on its face.