By the time Louis Drax hits his ninth birthday, he is, as his mother tells him, a cat who has used up eight of his nine lives.
A precocious little thing, Louis (Aiden Longworth) can reel off his various maladies with clinical efficiency, from the time he developed botulism to the time a chandelier fell on him as a baby.
The best descriptor he and his mother can come up with is accident-prone until a cliffside birthday picnic with his parents ends with Louis tumbling on to the rocks below.
At the hospital, hes declared dead, as his tearful mother Natalie (Sarah Gadon, all cow eyes and quivering lips) tells police that her estranged husband/retired boxer Peter (Aaron Paul) has since disappeared.
Louis is even wheeled to the morgue, until he suddenly and miraculously returns to life before slipping into a deep coma.
Its then that married neurologist Dr. Allan Pascal (Jamie Dornan) takes it upon himself to not only wake Louis up but solve the mystery of how he fell from the cliff all while finding himself drawn to the tragic Natalie.
The 9th Life of Louis Draxis a movie that isnt quite sure how to present itself, as it oscillates between domestic family drama, melodramatic romance, and dark fantasy.
Sometimes its shot like a golden, family-friendly dramedy about a quirky kid, and sometimes a dripping black seaweed creature stalks the halls of the hospital.
The sudden shifts in tone can be jarring, and while the dreamlike, watery scenes that take place within Louis coma can be visually gorgeous, they make the more down-to-earth scenes feel all the less engaging.
A clever and well-structured film can blend genres seamlessly to create something new and gripping, but by the timeDraxtakes yet another turn into psychological thriller, you find yourself wishing that it had fully committed to one genre before moving onto the next.C+
