For the right price. A man of few scruples (he doesn't blink at hoodwinking a novice into selling him an incredibly valuable edition of Don Quixote for a knockdown price), Corso has a mercenary mentality which ensures satisfaction for all of his clients. One such client is millionaire Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), a devotee of books about the Devil, who enlists Corso to track down the two remaining copies of an ancient text, The Nine Gates Of The Kingdom Of The Shadows, in order to authenticate a volume which he recently purchased from a fellow collector, Andrew Telfer, who committed suicide the very next day. Accepting a suitably hefty fee, Corso travels to Europe in search of the manuscripts, coming face to face with a rogue's gallery of odd-balls and fanatics who seem determined to protect their copies of the tome: the Ceniza Brothers (Jose Lopez Rodero), book binders from Portugal, and Victor Fargas (Jack Taylor), gracious scion of a formerly wealthy family, now residing in France. En route, Corso crosses paths with a bewitching, nameless Girl (Emmanuelle Seigner) possessing strange powers whose intentions - good or evil - are shrouded in mystery. However, she seems intent on protecting him from the advances of Liana Telfer (Lena Olin), widow of the man who sold the book to Balkan and now wants it back. As Corso nudges ever closer to unlocking the secrets of the book, so the people around him - including his friend Bernie (James Russo) - meet with untimely and grisly fates. Reluctantly joining forces with The Girl, know seems to know a great deal about The Nine Gates, Corso joins in a three-way tug-of-war with his client and Liana for possession of the engravings, culminating in Liana's brutal murder at the annual meeting of the Society Of The Silver Serpent in an enormous French chateau. With time running out and Balkan preparing to invoke the ancient rituals, Corso uses every means at his disposal to prevent the ceremony from taking place, and claim immortality for himself. It's been five years since Polanski strayed behind the cameras for the excellent three-hander Death And The Maiden, starring Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley and Stuart Wilson. With The Ninth Gate, based on the novel El Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte, he revisits some of the same themes of his 1968 classic Rosemary's Baby. The picture opens well enough, building suspense as Corso begins his quest for the other texts, meticulously gathering evidence of each book's veracity (the minute letters LCF - representing Lucifer - appearing in a stone in one of the engravings). Unfortunately, the air of mystery which settles on the film begins to choke it after the first hour mark, suggesting all sorts of possible twists and turns, and interesting plot developments which never come to fruition. The film poses plenty of interesting questions but shies away from providing concrete answers. Depp, sporting a rather fetching moustache and goatee, is the most restrained he's been for quite a while, looking wide-eyed and lost for the most part - we know how you feel Johnny! - as the forces of darkness whirl about him. His dogged pursuit of the books is reasonably plausible, but the character's descent from ruthless businessman to crazed obsessive is far too abrupt. Langella doesn't have to do a great deal in a vastly underwritten supporting role, while the nubile Seigner, his current wife, once again momentarily distracts attention away from her lack of acting ability by shedding her flimsy wardrobe with gusto. As for Olin - someone ought to sign her up for pantomime this Christmas. After all the build-up, you expect The Ninth Gate to deliver a humdinger of a finale as Balkan prepares to open the doorway to the Underworld that he and everyone else has been talking about for so long. A flurry of special effects, a chilling surprise revelation, divine retribution? Not a hope in Hell.