Nine Lives starring Kevin Spacey is worse than stepping in a cat's freshly vomited furball [Review]
Cute, fluffy, funny and PAWsitively ... awful.
The plot of Nine Lives is tried and tired: Tom Brand is a workaholic husband to fretful wife Lara (Jennifer Garner), an absent father to daughter Rebecca (Malina Weissman), and a harsh one to his adult son David (Robbie Amell). But a magical event gives Tom the lesson he needs about family.
En route to his daughter’s birthday party, Tom is in an accident and the next thing he knows, he’s stuck in Mr Fuzzypants, a cat he just bought for Rebecca.
As a cat, first as a horrible one, and later a loveable fluffball, Tom-cat (get it?) learns things about his family he never noticed before.
Yes, it’s meant to give you warm fuzzies, but Nine Lives doesn’t land on its feet. Garner and Spacey lack chemistry, and Weissman’s acting is as natural as a cat skydiving off of a building. Oh, that actually happens. David, who tries to hold his father’s company together in his absence, is the only one you feel for. And nothing excuses the dreadful CGI.
The cameos of celebrity cats like Nala, Hamilton the Hipster Cat, Henri le Chat Noir and Lil Bub are awesome. But along with Spacey’s performance (while human) and Amell’s chiselled jawline, they are the only redeeming qualities of a film suited more to the litter box than the box office.