The Nines

This overreaching, Lynch-lite comic drama is the mediocre directorial debut of screenwriter John August (‘Charlie’s Angels’, ‘Big Fish’) and, if nothing else, demonstrates why some writers should stick to their laptops. While the idea of three loosely linked shorts with the same actors playing multiple roles may have seemed like a good one on paper, it means that Ryan Reynolds – an actor who manages to make a side of beef look expressive – is woefully miscast not once, but three times. Still, you do get the impression that August is trying to pass comment on the numerous ways we’re able to depart from modern life (drugs, videogames, TV), but he’s far too arch and clever just to come out and say it. The radiant Hope Davis lightens up things slightly with a delightful, if entirely superfluous rendition of Peggy Lee’s ‘Is That All There Is?’, but for the most part she delivers her lines with a glazed, distant look in her eyes which would suggest that she’s got about as much idea of what this all means as we do.