Nine Lives Review

Nine Lives, from the director of the Men in Black movies and two Addams Family movies, and starring Kevin Spacey, is far from their proudest film. It preys on audience's affection for kittens and shoehorns a sappy plot and tired visual gags. The film's message is not just heavy handed, it is a hand made of lead.

Kevin Spacey plays Tom Brand, the owner of a big corporation who's pet project, pardon the pun, is building the tallest building in North America. He is a terrible father and husband, married at least twice, who spends all his time working. Then, on a fateful trip to pick out a cat for his daughter's birthday, he falls off of his beloved skyscraper, and is transformed into a cat while his body lies in a coma. The man suspected to be behind the body swap is Felix Perkins, played by the wonderfully weird Christopher Walken. Mr. Brand has one week to make amends with his family or he else he will be forever a cat. Does this sound familiar? That is because it is the Shaggy Dog with a dash of Freaky Friday.

Mr. Brand, freshly a feline, first tries to prove he is human to his family, by writing messages in yarn or with alphabet fridge magnets, and acting more like a person than a kitten. This expectedly does not work. What is left is a series of visual puns seemingly left over from the two live-action Garfield movies. But there is a certain level of charm that even the worst optical jokes offer, and if you miss the slapstick of early nineties films, then this is as close as you are going to get in theatres today.

But the problem with all the kitten playfulness is the poor CGI, sticking out like a sore paw when cut between shots of a real cat. And then there is the obvious blue-screen, used when atop the aforementioned building or when Mr. Brand jumps out of a plane in the film's opening shot. A smaller scope, let us say, a story that did not involve a cat jumping off of a building onto a canopy, would have been more satisfying.

While we watch the cat try and become human, there is a side-plot involving his grownup son trying to prevent a corporate takeover of his dad's company by Ian Cox, played by the effectively slimy Mark Consuelos. But its tone, how ever generic it is, contrasts so egregiously with the silliness of the cat story, and if the feline antics amuse smaller children, then the espionage will bore them.

Nine Lives took five writers and had far too much talent in front and behind the screen. But Walken and Spacey, with Jennifer Garner and Cheryl Hines in supporting roles as his wife and ex-wife, respectively, look amused with themselves and there is some fun from their performances. While the script is a very John Hughes' blend of sappy and slapstick, for a talking cat movie, it is about as good as it could have been.