Nine Lives

Nine Lives takes us through the lives of 9 men who are interconnected by the fact they are all participants in the roundelay of casual sexual encounters. The technique used is that of each actor speaking to the audience about his background and how each ended up in the rather sad state of living in which they find themselves.

Ronnie is something of a sex addict; an HIV-poz man who uses random encounters and booze as narcotics, to dull the pain of memories of lost happiness that has faded from his life, and the stark reality of his limited future. Connected by him and his story, we get to meet a twenty-something Latino handyman who met Ronnie through a website and get to know his story. Ronnie works for an upscale and unhappy gay couple. He occasionally sleeps with both of them on an individual basis without the knowledge of other. One half of the couple has a personal trainer who is also a hustler whom he sleeps with. The trainer once tricks for free with a drug dealer who has a disabled brother he has to take care of. The drug dealer services a crystal meth addict who had lost his lover and as he was getting to know another person in his life, he died too to 9/11. Finally we have a casual sex partner of the meth addict - a well-to-do black businessman with a pregnant wife, who also tricks with Ronnie's character, bringing us back full-circle.

The nine characters range from loneliness to unpleasant to drug addicts etc. Each individual has their own agenda. The fact that they talk to you in the camera takes a while to get adjusted. Some of the stories didn't make sense if you start putting logic to it and there are some inconsistencies. The last man who is married and showing a typical African-American couple was cliched and totally unnecessary.

I would suggest to stay away and save some time and money. (2/10)