Dean Corso, a rather dishonest rare book dealer, receives a commission from a private collector to search for the other two existing copies of his highly valuable book, "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows," because he believes that only one of the three copies is authentic. The problem for Corso is that by accepting the assignment, he gets into much deeper waters than he expected, waters where his life is in danger.
The film, released in 1999, has some strong scenes, such as the fire revealed by the in wheelchair baroness, and the differences in the illustrations from book to book of the The Ninen Gates... are very intriguing, as well as the mysterious woman who follows Corso. These were the things that stuck in my memory from having seen some fragments as a child, and I finally decided to satisfy my curiosity, but it has been quite disappointing.
The main enigma, which holds most of the suspense, is shown to be solved, but the answer is not shown to the viewer. The little supernatural aspect of the film is not impressive, and it has little and poor action.
The characters are not much charismatic, the most charismatic being the anonymous mysterious girl, and her charisma comes more from the mystery of who she is more than anything else. The humor that can sometimes be shown in this type of film with certain exaggerations or extravagant results, and which I think was attempted in some scenes, also fails.
Dean Corso, the protagonist, although cunning, is quite emotionally unreactive, although he does not make it to be the typically simple and cold mercenary, and he is also somewhat clumsy.
In summary, the film does not excel in any of the areas where it could have in this type of film, and furthermore, the ending is unsatisfactory. I hope that the book it was partially based on, "The Club Dumas" by Pérez-Reverte, is much better.