“Have you ever wondered what the meaning of life is? Why do we exist? The answer to this vexing question is now within your reach! You’ll find it in a small yet amazing booklet, which will explain in easy to follow; simple terms your reason for being! The booklet, printed on the finest paper, contains illuminating, exquisite colour pictures, and could be yours for a mere $9.99.”

If you were sitting, having a cup of tea, flicking the pages of a newspaper or magazine and came across an advert like that, it’s safe to say one would cynically flick on or indulge in an introverted chuckle.


Surely it costs at least $20 to answer so many mind boggling questions.


Needless to say, $9.99 protagonist is unemployed Dave Peck who is sucked into this advertisement and so begins his overwhelming fascination of the ultimate question about human existence.


While our Dave is obsessing and trying to tell his friends and colleagues about his recent discovery, we follow a number of stories that take place in and around the same apartment building in Sydney, that are cleverly intertwined throughout the movie.


My personal favourite of these is the story of the disgruntled guardian angel (voiced by Geoffrey Rush) who, sort of, forces his way into the life of a lonely, elderly man named Albert.

Presenting $9.99 in stop motion animation successfully blends the ability to relate to each character as their personal circumstances unfold, offering us us with a sense of surrealism that seriously oversteps the boundary in places.


I think the unpredictability of $9.99 and the bleak but magical atmosphere made it really easy to watch. If it was less bizarre it would been far less interesting but find yourself questioning the movie just as much as you’d question the nature of life itself.


Don’t watch $9.99 expecting a lot of answers to unanswerable questions, perhaps that goes without saying.


While it does give you an insight into what our purpose in life may be, naturally, no definitive resolutions are given and if you seriously expected that it’s safe to say that you’re pretty naïve.


It may be useful to look up Etgar Keret’s short stories on which this Australian flick is based, it just might make the whole experience slightly more comprehendible.