SOURCE: Turan, Kenneth. “Ninth Gate Is Languorous Dance with the Devil.” Los Angeles Times (10 March 2000): F27.

In the following review, Turan observes that The Ninth Gate creates a stylish and intelligent atmosphere, but ultimately lacks dramatic momentum and fails to hold the viewer's attention.

Better than Harrison Ford, John Travolta or even Leonardo DiCaprio, getting the devil involved in your picture is a sure way of getting it made. Not necessarily as a producer or financial backer (though that probably wouldn't hurt) but merely as a subject. From 1899's “Chorus Girls and the Devil” (little more than the title survives, unfortunately) to the current The Ninth Gate, Satan has always been the movie business' go-to guy.

Adapted (quite loosely, apparently) from El Club Dumas, a literary thriller by Spanish novelist Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Ninth Gate is at least the second encounter with the evil one for Roman Polanski...