If you were a soul waiting to be born, how would you prepare to live? This is the question that the new film Nine Days asks (In LA and NY theaters this Friday, expanding nationwide on August 6th). A highly conceptual film that’s both spiritual and sci-fi, the film is ultimately more rewarding for the cerebrally-stirring questions that it attempts to pose to the audience rather than it being an exciting watch that’s as entertaining in the moment.

Nine Days begins quite ambiguously. A large-framed yet mysteriously quiet man, Will (Winston Duke), observing a wall of old televisions through antique glasses–each stacked on top of the other to make for a wall of screens–each playing through life moments from first-person POVs.

We soon learn why he pores over these life moments: (somehow) Will is directly responsible for choosing the souls that will begin a life on Earth, a gatekeeper or god-figure, however you choose to see it. And so, over nine days’ time, we see Will interview a collection of characters, asking them all a variety of life-affirming questions with a searing intensity that gives the film its conceptual identity.

Nine Days has a very interesting premise, but the film–directed by Edson Oda–doesn’t give Will anything for us to invest in. Zazie Beetz is underutilized as Emma, a character interviewing for life on Earth, whose countered-openness and positivity challenges the cynically over-stoic Will into rethinking who should be granted life.

While the film is too slow-paced and loose for a great watching experience, Nine Days should be rewarded for being a daring and original film.

This review originally ran on October 20, 2020 during the 2020 AFI Film Festival.

‘Nine Days’ is being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. In LA and NY theaters this Friday, expanding nationwide on August 6th.