K-Blamo!

Rating: 10/10 (11 April 2005)

Imagine if Alfred Hitchcock made a film-noir in the nineteen forties, with access to the same movie making technology that we have today. Then imagine that Quentin Tarantino co-directed. What you have imagined is "Sin City", the new movie directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, from Miller's comic books.
The movie is, in a way, an astonishment, because Rodriguez has given us no prior evidence that he is capable of directing anything better than standard stylish action shlock. Oh man, is he ever.
The film takes place in Basin "Sin" City, a Gotham-New York hybrid that probably jumped straight out of Frank Miller's nightmares. When the sky is not grey, it is red, it is always raining, and the population all seems to follow only one convention: they have a considerable amount of dirty laundry. It is as if Rodriguez reached into "The Maltese Falcon", grabbed the city, and threw it into a vat of Gatorade - which is a compliment, of course.
After a short scene at the beginning - which plays like a teaser, hinting at Sin City's nature - we are launched into three short stories, all intersecting briefly in one place: at a cheap strip joint outside the city.
We start with Marv (Mickey Rourke), a massive, rough sadist whose mug looks like a cross between Mr. Incredible's and a brick. We don't know much about his past, but we know it's dirty, and that he'd probably deserve a lethal injection over a good woman. But he gets a good woman, which seems like a miracle to him, and they spend a night together. Possibly the best night of his life. When he wakes up, she's dead. He wants to find out why, who, how, and how to kill those guilty. He says his quest is "Worth dying for, worth killing for, worth going to hell for." Then we take a leap into Dwight's world. Dwight (Clive Owen) is running from the law, and has just hooked up with Shellie (Brittany Murphy), the girl who's loved him all her life. But Shellie's ex boyfriend Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) won't have it, and he barges into their apartment with some heavies. After a brief quibble, Jackie Boy makes his exit, violently drunk. Dwight suspects he's on his way to Old Town to inflict hell on the prostitutes who act as law there, the prostitutes who saved Dwight's life, his friends. He races off to help them.
And last but not least is the story of Det. John Hartigan (Bruce Willis), one of the rare hero cops of Sin City. He saves a little girl from Junior, a pedophile (Nick Stahl). But Junior has an important dad, and Hartigan goes to prison for nearly a decade, framed for the crime. When he gets out, he races to find Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba), the little girl who's now all grown up and still targeted by Junior. But Junior's gone through some disturbing changes since his last bout with Hartigan...
The many characters are wide-ranging archetypes: heroes (Owen, Willis), anti-heroes (Rourke), villains (Rutger Hauer, Michael Clarke Duncan), psychos (Stahl, Del Toro, Elijah Wood), good girls (Alba, Murphy, Carla Gugino), considerably more interesting bad girls (Rosario Dawson, Devoan Aoki), and some mysterious figures (Josh Hartnett).
Most of the actors are perfectly cast, some of them deliver performances worth remembering, particularly Rourke, Owen, Willis and Del Toro. They are great at taking these characters and becoming them, while still maintaining their star presence. Bruce Willis reminds us of Bruce Willis, but we remember him as John Hartigan. Del Toro, Wood and Stahl are the only actors who've been cast against type.
The style of the film is what connects the three stories, as well as the strip joint, and similar themes about camaraderie, love, hate, torture and redemption. The movie is like a comic book, as we've all said, but you can only understand it if you've seen it. Then you'll agree, it feels like it was inked.
Rodriguez will be remembered for this movie, and this movie will be remembered because of Frank Miller's genius and imagination. It's bloody, yeah, and it's got quite a bit of nudity, but you can't imagine the movie without it. I should hope no one would complain, because what do they expect, seeing a movie "guest-directed" by Tarantino, the man himself. Tarantino's scene is one of the best and strangest of the movie, it involves Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, a car, some flashing lights and a "PEZ dispenser".
I don't know if the movie will survive like "Pulp Fiction" has, but I hope it does, because it's almost as good at combining pop culture references, homages, action, harsh violence and deep character insights into one, even narrative.
The movie is a joy, a dark, neo-noir, violent, sometimes disgusting joy.
9/10.