generally effective comic book film

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2006)

Robert Rodriguez' "Sin City" is a highly stylized adaptation of the graphic novels by Frank Miller (who, along with Quentin Tarentino, assisted Rodriguez in the directing). The film draws its look and inspiration from those old film noir movies from the 1940's, the ones set in dark, rain-soaked, crime-infested cities and narrated in florid fashion by a world-weary private investigator or gumshoe. "Sin City" has that in spades along with deliberately arch dialogue, self-conscious acting and a visual schemata designed to knock your eyes out.
"Sin City" tells the episodic tale of three virtually unrelated "super heroes" (played by Bruce Willis, Clive Owen and Mickey Rourke) who take on crime and corruption in what is, as the title implies, a veritable metropolitan den of vice and iniquity. The three leads are supplemented by Rosario Dawson, Josh Hartnett, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood and Rutger Hauer in various smaller roles.
"Sin City" is far more about style than it is about substance, and, indeed, the story is the least engaging aspect of the film, often becoming repetitious and aimless and devoid of cohesion and unity. The look of the film, however, is what keeps us interested. Filmed primarily in black-and-white, the movie adds splotches of color at key moments and for various thematic purposes and relies heavily on rear screen projection to give it just that right post-modern/retro look it needs to be effective. As in the "Kill Bill" movies, the violence in the film is graphic but so highly stylized that we never take any of it very seriously, although there may be just a tad too much dismemberment for some people's taste - though, strangely, the people who are killed never seem to stay dead for very long in this movie. The art direction is less sensational than it is in many of these comic book movies, but the streamlined simplicity of the look keeps it from overwhelming the film.
The child molestation theme that runs through the movie may be off-putting to some and it does result in a few queasy moments later on in the film. Still, this is an intriguing and generally entertaining comic book movie that really does a good job recreating the look of the source material on which it is based.