Dean Corso, a rare book researcher, is commissioned by an eccentric and extremely wealthy businessman to find some rare editions of an old manuscript titled "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows". According to an ancient legend, the nine editions of the book, once gathered together, are able to open a passage to the Underworld. After various vicissitudes and strange events, the scholar will manage to gather the nine manuscripts, but will the result be the desired one? Fascinated by the novel "The Dumas Club" by the Spanish Arturo Pérez Reverte, Roman Polanski decides to make a film, but despite the excellent subject, the inspired protagonist Johnny Depp and the undeniable qualities of the director, the result is not what one could expect. Polanski returns to satanism, after "Rosemary's Baby", with what could be defined as a fake B-movie for the use of some deliberately kitsch special effects (see the car chase sequence) and real B actors, like James Russo and Frank Langella. Subtleties that can meet the taste of certain cinephiles but that in this case turn out to be absolutely cutesy, almost an obstacle to the functionality and charm of the film. The pace of the film is really excessively slow, willingly, one could give up at least twenty/twenty-five minutes of film; a more careful and curated editing would probably have given it an acceptable pace. It leaves a bitter taste especially the ending, too interlocutory, it practically gives no precise answer to the many questions opened by the film. From a director like Polanski, one could expect something more.
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