Sin City is both faithful and brilliant

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2005)

It would be very easy to describe Sin City as an exercise in style but the truth is that this is one of those films that's really indescribable, although brilliantly so. Three of Frank Miller's graphic stories are brought to the screen and the first involves a hardened detective named Hartigan (Bruce Willis) who saves an 11 year old girl named Nancy (Makenzie Vega) from Roark Jr. (Nick Stahl) who's a pedophile but has family connections in both politics and religion.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** Hartigan ends up in jail for 8 years but when he gets out he finds Nancy (Jessica Alba) who's now a dancer in a hole in the wall called Kadie's and he accidentally leads Yellow Bastard (Stahl again) to her.
The second story involves a deformed brute and ex-con named Marv (Mickey Rourke) who wakes up next to a dead hooker and realizes out that he's being framed. Marv meets the dead hookers twin sister and he figures out that her death has to do with a silent nerd named Kevin (Elijah Wood) who's a cannibal but is protected by Cardinal Roark (Rutger Hauer) who's a family member.
Story number 3 has a semi decent hooligan named Dwight (Clive Owen) dating a waitress from Kadie's named Shellie (Brittany Murphy) but her old boyfriend Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) refuses to let her go. Dwight follows him to Old Town where the hookers live but Jackie Boy gets himself killed which puts things in chaos because the police and organized crime might want to take over the area since Jackie Boy is a cop!
This is credited with having 3 directors but the truth of the matter is that Sin City is a Robert Rodriguez film from start to finish. Not only is he the main director but he also did the cinematography with HD cameras and the editing as well. Frank Miller is given credit because he was on the set every day overseeing everything and the entire look of the film comes from his comics and storyboards. Quentin Tarantino directed one scene in the film (as a favor to his friend Rodriguez) and it's the one involving Owen driving to the tar pits and having a conversation with the head of Del Toro. The cinematography is in black and white except with a few splashes of other colors for artistic reasons and one of the more interesting choices Rodriguez made was with all the bloodshed that occurs there is no red blood shown and the color white is used instead. What makes this film truly special (for me, anyway) is the story involving Rourke as the deformed brute called Marv and even though he's hidden under a ton of make-up Rourke delivers one of his most memorable performances to date. With Miller's brutally edgy characterization and Rodriguez's visual flair Rourke is given all the ingredients to bring this character to life on screen and he does it with a gusto that audiences haven't seen from him in years. The script does an admirable job of giving insights into his character to the point that the viewer actually starts to understand him such as his gratitude to the hooker Goldie (Jaime King) for her kindness but it also delves deeper into his psyche that he mentions that he worries about becoming a homicidal maniac. Quite simply the character Marv is one of the toughest SOB's ever captured on film! The other actors that appear in the film are all well cast as well from Willis, Owen, Alba, Wood, Del Toro, and also Rosario Dawson, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Alexis Bledel. This is a modern film noir set in one of those alternate universes where we see old cars and characters talking about "dames" but we also see modern devices such as cell phones and helicopters and Sin City at times reminds viewers of Gotham City. Some may find the violence too much for their taste but I was enthralled by practically every minute of this film and the great news is that there are already plans to bring more of these dark stories to the screen.