Breathtaking visuals enhance a wonderful graphic novel adaptation

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2005)

There is something to be said about visual style. It can make a horrible movie entertaining and an excellent one stunning. It can even make a decent movie far better than it is. Without the style of directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, this movie would have been a forgettable take on film noir.
I'm not a fan of the new film-making method of shooting completely against green-screen and adding everything but the actors and smallest of props later. I think it takes more effort to work with what exists than too create it on a computer. Last year's "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" was also made this way and, while it was a good movie, it could have worked just as well without the technique. "Sin City" could not. The way this movie was filmed is the key to everything. Without style, it would have been forgettable; made without the computer-generated sets and scenery, the movie would have been a disaster. Every last frame of this picture succeeds in ways no other movie has in adapting a comic book. The mood, atmosphere, lighting, coloring (or lack of) and characters all look like they stepped out of the back pages of a newspaper. And I loved it.
The rest of the movie was a little disappointing. The movie is broken up into three or four short stories that interweave some of the same characters and settings, but don't really connect in a traditional film manner. Many will like this, I was under whelmed. Each story has the same basic structure that, given the short time allowed each story, is not able to be fleshed out enough to hide its sketchiness. I also did not like the bleak tone to the movie; numerous characters are not as bad as they act, but nearly everyone meets a violent end. The dialogue is wretched; everyone speaks in the overcooked 1940's film noir tone that has been spoofed and mocked time and again. I was told afterwards by someone who liked this that this was how they spoke in the comics. I don't really care for film noir and I don't like comic books; I am obviously not the intended audience to fully appreciate this movie. Those who are, will love even these few reservations I had and will not be bothered by them. In fact, they will probably embrace them.
High marks also go to the actors, all excellent and each one not given enough screen time. Bruce Willis as Hartigan, a retiring cop who saves a young girl from death, is better here than in any movie he has ever been in before. Sympathetic and heroic, he plays every scene perfectly. Jessica Alba, as the grown up version of said girl, is also wonderful and convincingly sympathetic. I know of her, but have only seen her before in "Idle Hands" (a movie not up to her obvious talent). Mickey Rourke is better here than in his movies since the 80's; good marks must go to the heavy makeup he must act through. But, I found his character to be one-note and the least interesting of the "good" guys. Pretty much everyone else is barely on screen long enough to make more than the briefest of impacts: Powers Boothe as a sinister senator; Rutger Hauer as a crooked holy man; Rosario Dawson as a tough prostitute; Brittany Murphy as a gritty waitress; Benicio Del Toro as a slimy cop; Elijah Wood as a stealthy cannibal killer who looks like a demented Charlie Brown. But the best by far is Clive Owen. As Dwight, whose back story is either not given or I missed it (all I caught was that he was a murderer who recently underwent plastic surgery), he helps the prostitutes of Old Town keep their independence. He is sympathetic, menacing, tough, vulnerable and, yes, cool. I want this character in a movie of his own.
Comic books fans will love this movie, the casual moviegoer will find it quite good and original. Those who can't tolerate heavy violence and gore (even in black and white) better stay away.