Modern Noir Masterpiece

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2005)

'Sin City' is the most enjoyable movie I have seen so far this year, whether on DVD or at the theater. Roberto Rodriguez and Frank Miller have made one of the most entertaining and emotionally satisfying movies of modern times. The story is told with raw intensity from the beginning to the end, constantly surprising the viewer with the next fantastic, unpredictable twist and conclusion. It's a movie told in mosaics, three distinct stories with their own protagonists and antagonists, beginning, middle and end, and with some marginal connection. In the end, though, it's almost always the same story: the lone tough guy on his personal crusade for love against the powers that be. Miller seems to love a specific type of male character  they always come as streetwise, macho, violent men with their emotions on their sleeves and inflexible, twisted morals, capable of doing anything for a dame. The women came in as more diversified, but they're still pretty much the archetypal femme fatale from noir tradition. If this looks like Miller can't come up with different characters or that he is merely repeating himself, that's not my point. In fact, Marv, Hartigan and Dwight are three of the most distinct, fascinating characters I've seen in a good while. They're all born from the same basic source of creativity  namely noir tradition that Miller so much loves  but each story is different and unique on its own!
The story that more impressed was Marv's segment. Mickey Rourke, in one of his finest roles ever, gives life to a violent, brutish and uncompromising tough guy bent on revenge. Marv is a walking anachronism, his raw brutality, frankness and values are completely incompatible with modern society  and I think he acknowledges that at the end of his segment. When the only woman of his life is mysteriously killed, Marv turns Sin City upside down looking for the killers until he reaches the core of power and corruption controlling the city. The resolution is unpredictable but also the most realistic. Miller and Rodriguez didn't cop out here, and I praise them for their courage. This story is the most violent of the three, pretty much on account of Marv's presence, and also has the most colorful characters of the movie  Wendy and Goldie, Cardinal Roark, the psychotic cannibal Kevin. Elijah Wood was unrecognizable as a young killing machine that devours his victims. As corny as this may seem, the truth is Miller and Rodriguez makes it work with chilling beauty!
The second segment was my least favorite; it was still enjoyable and had some of the best acting of the movie thanks to Benicio Del Toro's performance as Jackie Boy: his scenes with Clive Owen inside the car were so funny! Owen is good as Dwight, as regular and nice guy as Sin City could allow it: like Marv he gets in trouble for women, only this time he's fighting to keep someone he loves alive. It's a twisted story featuring a colorful gallery of characters, from a scantily-dressed army of dangerous prostitutes to Irish mercenaries, to Manute, it's a fun ride full of ecstatic violence and action: the final showdown on the rooftops of Old Town Still was impressive, but it still left me emotionally cold.
Now the last segment  the 2nd best to me  was the most emotional and heartbreaking of the movie! Bruce Willis gives the best performance of the movie as John Hartigan, a rare thing in Sin City: a decent, hard-working cop who fights corruption and the powers that control Sin City, namely Senator Roark and his son, Junior. This is to me the most complex story of the three: Hartigan saves a young Nancy Callahan from child rapist and serial killer junior when she's only 11 years old. Hartigan knows he's getting in trouble going against the Roark, but for him saving a young girl in exchange for his life is a fair trade. He saves her, but what comes next is the most twisted revenge story ever! Senator Roark makes sure Hartigan is charged with raping Nancy and he goes in for eight years. Everyone abandons him, his friends and family, thinking he's a sick pervert. He accepts it all very well: telling anyone the truth would imply their deaths. So he takes his punishment in silence. Now one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when young Nancy visits Hartigan at the hospital to thank him; she knows he's being framed and is powerless to help him, and Hartigan tells her to never see him again. Their only contact during eight years becomes the letters she sends him every week. But when the letters stop coming, Hartigan knows something's wrong and takes action. What follows is one of the most satisfying stories I've seen in a while as Hartigan gets his revenge, but it's also the most depressing as his inflexible values force him to do something extreme to save Nancy Callahan, now 19 years old, from Roark's wrath. The ending is just heartbreaking and yet it's the only possible conclusion.
Accompanying the three stories is the always superb cinematography: mostly black-&-white, sometimes with some bits of color to make contrast, and always visually impressive. The score is memorable and the dialog is Oscar-worthy! The acting is not always great, but the characters are so strong one forgives that.
Putting it simply, Miller and Rodriguez have created a modern masterpiece!