Review of $9.99 (2009) by Thomas W — 08 Apr 2010

An unemployed Sydney man with a talent for cooking who lives with his father in a city apartment complex contemplates, wonders and then buys a book entitled "The Meaning of Life" for $9.99. Upon devouring/reading the book very quickly, the man tries to ask everyone he comes into contact with what they believe to be the meaning of life (he even questions a tele-marketer).

The story is wry and wistful as it paints a picture of hope and dread. The very rough stop-motion animation isn't nearly as neat and clean as it would be if it were a high-dollor Hollywood production; but I think that is partially the point of $9.

99. The book was cheap, thoughts and thinking are cheap and THE movie was cheaply produced; but does money buy you the important things in life? I guess however one answers that will determine how much one might like this movie.

It is not a film for everyone and I am sure many won't be able to make it through the very short (78 minutes!) movie. While our unemployed man, Dave Peck, is the film's central character, $9.99 briefly follows the lives of the inhabitants in and around his apartment complex.

To show that it isn't a typical animated film, the opening scene involves the suicide of a homeless man who is denied a couple of bucks from the wallet of one of the apartment complex's inhabitants (Dave's father, to be exact -- and it seemed as if the death could have been avoided had the man with the wallet been civil and/or nice).

The homeless man returns to the land of the living almost immediately as an angel (what does this say about suicide?) and takes up residence with an elderly man in the complex who is lonely, questions life and misses his wife.

Dave's brother starts a relationship with a supermodel and the film shows the sacrifices/changes he adopts in order to win this woman over (he shaves himself bald at first and then ... he, well, I can't really go into that here because there isn't a word for it).

A young boy saves money in a piggy bank so he can buy a soccer action figure in the toy store at the base of the building; but he develops a bond with the smiling piggy bank and cannot bring himself to destroy it with a hammer after he has saved enough money for his toy.

A sad, pot-smoking young man is dumped by his fiancee and carries on conversations lamenting his loss with three pint-sized duplicates of himself while high. $9.99 is comprised of several small, interesting stories filled with realistic characters.

I found myself to be highly intrigued with it and was actually upset with its brief running time. I did want more ... because what comes next? Some of the "inner" story was beautiful even with some slight morbidity (Smoothies, anyone?).

As for that suicidal-homeless man/angel, I think it says a lot about the hope of what God is. The ending of one's own life is frowned upon in Christianity and we say it is a one-way ticket to hell; but I think this is telling US to not be so quick in our casting-down and judgement of others.

We need to look at and see the understanding of God. The angel tells us he doesn't know what heaven looks like because he hadn't been there yet -- could this be that God is giving this doomed soul another, different chance to earn his wings and a spot in heaven? "Doomed", "damned" and "lost" to us mere mortals is something entirely different to God -- and isn't He the One that matters? The pointing of fingers and judging that Christians are so quick to do is not the way of God.

$9.99 isn't a whole lot to come up with but it is a lot to think about.