Casual Critic Mini Reviews

Sin City (USA) (Dimension Films) (2005) ****1/2Year: 2005iMDB

Director: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez Cast: Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Elijah Wood, Rosario Dawson

Sin City is the most stylish and brutally accurate graphic novel movie rendition to date, and an effort that is unlikely to be surpassed any time soon. Director Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Spy Kids) literally transposes Frank Miller's work from paper to screen in the finest details, from only using black and white with selected splashes of color, to the narrative voice-overs of the main characters, to the gritty violence of the comic books. The result is a visually stunning post-modern film noir that exploits to the maximum the versatility of digital cinema.

Sin City tells three quasi-independent stories, similar in nature yet different in backgrounds and motivation. Marv (Mickey Rourke), Dwight (Clive Owen) and Hartigan (Bruce Willis) each fight for their own view of justice, loyalty and honor. The acting is solid throughout, including an amazing supporting cast, but Rourke delivers the most electrifying performance.

Most of the complaints about the movie are either criticizing the weakness of the dialogue and simplicity of the story plots, are disgusted by the omnipresent ridiculously visceral levels of violence, or question the values and message that the movie is trying to put forward. Before embracing such criticism one must simply remember that we are talking about a comic book (graphic novel) adaptation, a medium which in general has simple stories, corny dialogue and over-the-top action. Frank Miller's world is not a typical comic-book world though. It is a profoundly dark world, where even the good characters are bad and tainted, where violence is a form of expression and a mundane reality, where unwilling heroes struggle to uphold some values, but they can only do it within the rules of the society that they live in.

Sin City is not a movie for everyone. It is perhaps even more violent than Kill Bill vol.1, but it is a cinematic masterpiece and a perfect exercise of style.