Ryan Reynolds in The Nines Credit: Newmarket Films

John August's The Nines plays like an all-grown-up version of August's Go - another intertwined triptych of tales with characters and catchphrases overlapping from one to the next.

But it has more on its mind and in its ambitious sights than just exploring what happens when one decision leads to another leads to another leads to a fire in a Las Vegas hotel room and a shooting at a strip club.

The longtime writer (Big Fish, Corpse Bride) applies his vivid imagination as director for the first time, as well, and in the past decade it seems his interests have turned toward the spiritual. His characters are still hip and contemporary and witty and multilayered - but now, one of them also might be God. Well, maybe not THE God, but at least A god. Only he doesn't know it yet.

Ryan Reynolds plays a different version of this figure in each segment (a distraught actor, a TV series creator who's the focus of a reality program and finally a character in that TV series) and each allows him to display a range we never could have imagined from the sarcastic comic persona he's honed in movies like Waiting ... and Van Wilder.

While the meaning and the ending of The Nines are wildly open for interpretation, Reynolds' ability is a sure thing.