Nine Days

This is a breathtaking movie that could easily and powerfully be turned into a play. The scenery is sparse, the sets could be easily recreated for the stage and there are only seven people involved. I really appreciated that the story doesn’t explain anything - it touches so lightly on things that the viewer is able to interpret it as we like. It is both tender and bold, psychological and spiritual.

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The plot centers on a man who is responsible for choosing souls to incarnate. The souls he interviews have gathered themselves from the soup of all possibilities, and if they are not selected, they return to the soup byway of walking toward the horizon (which happens to be on the Bonneville Salt Flats).

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My understanding of reincarnation doesn’t jibe with this set-up, but it doesn’t matter because it’s such an interesting premise. Also interesting is that, even at his level of evolution, the main character still has to deal with personal trauma. Indeed, because he has not accepted and integrated his own trauma his work is affected. He ends up choosing the candidate that has - to him - the right amount of cynicism and caution.

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The candidates that he turns down, over the course of nine days, show the complexes that they gathered up into themselves when their consciousness became singular. One guy has father issues, a lady has abandonment issues, etc. It’s super interesting to see their reactions to not being chosen, and to see the gift that the main character gives each of them before they return to the many.

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One of the candidates that he turns down is so unusual, so present and without guile that, at first, he can't even see her properly. Ultimately, it is she who reminds him how much joy can be had in a life.

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The lead actor is extraordinary! He has such presence. His acting shifts so dramatically for the final scene, it’s as if he blooms into his wholeness and we get to witness it. The final scene is so powerful I had to watch it twice, and four days later I’m still thinking about it.

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It’s magnificent. A deeply profound tale really well told.