Not One Minute Wasted

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2006)

Firstly, let me say clearly that I hate violent movies and until recently, with the exception of the 'Kill Bill' films and 'Pulp Fiction' which I saw for the first time just recently, I was a fanatic "NO GUNS EVER" in any film I saw. This film, 'Sin City' is against everything I believe in but the film, in all its gore and violence and schmaltz, makes me not care about my rules. The first time I saw it, I was intrigued and it took me about 4 times until I finally saw the whole thing and put it all together. I love the dialogue, the way these characters use the most melodramatic lines from old film noir films and present them in a way that makes it all so normal. You definitely know the prose are in the mode of old films but it fits so well in its black and white (except when they show in color or techno white where someone has been shot or decapitated or had an arm ripped off) setting. It is just so dramatic! It drags you into its story lines happily and perhaps feeling guilty that you are enjoying it so much. You end up liking the hookers in 'Old Town' and the way they got and keep their independence. It is an old time movie, hating the bad guys and loving the good guys and gals and forgiving them their sins as their ultimate ideal makes them forgivable. Everything fits into this film. Every 'method', type of dialogue, scene, actor, cinematography...they all fit together into one great film. The actors, and I point out specifically; Clive Owen, Brittany Murphy and Rosario Dawson are perfect. Murphy is a doe eyed 'bad girl with the heart of gold' that uses her dialogue like a caricature (as this whole film is) of the films of the 40s. Dawson is superwoman and Owen is wonderful in all he does and soon will be huge in this country. He has the 'tude, looks, manner, etc. to be anything from James Bond to Satan (which he does in this film)and back again! One must have a stomach for the most graphic violence, from cannibalism to brain dicing. I could go on but cannot. It is a great film and cannot wait to purchase it! If you are in therapy, give it to your therapist and then have a session discussing your feelings about this film, as psychologically, this film tells you a lot about ones psyche!