Technically interesting, but no heart

Rating: 5/10 (31 July 2005)

Three stories from Frank Miller's celebrated series of graphic novels are loosely intertwined here in what is undoubtedly a highly personal project for director Robert Rodriguez and co-director Miller. The film certainly captures the visceral nature of Miller's work, with its curious focus on genital mutilation and dismemberment (but is surprisingly coy when it comes to Miller's penchant for nudity). As an experiment in aesthetics, it works - it's fun, it's technically interesting. As a film for an audience of more than two? Well, that's something else. The three narratives are insufficiently connected for this ever to gel as a single piece, and whatever chance there is of immersing yourself in the Sin City universe is constantly undermined by the insistent use of voice-over narration. You're never allowed to fall into the world, but rather are distracted by a never-ending string of "hard boiled" one-liners that describe precisely what you're seeing on screen or could reasonably deduce from the performances if the camera were ever allowed to linger on them. They could be interesting stories about complex, damaged people, but Rodriguez fails to get the most out of the material because he doesn't seem to trust it - or trust himself. In his obsession to replicate the precise look of what's on the page he fails to use more of the power of the screen - strong performances, real atmosphere, temporal and aural control rather than just visual. It leaves me wondering why he bothered. If you're not going to use the power of the other register, why bother with a transposition? The result is a film which is technically accurate, visually stunning, but ringingly hollow at the core. The whole piece seems overly cruel as a way of masking its lack of character, humanity, or actual story. And rather than growing out of the long noir tradition, it feels like a postmodern hijacking of it. Worse, it isn't even hijacked for good reason - it doesn't add to the tradition, nor critique it, nor say anything new or interesting about it. Miller has said repeatedly that his central theme is love. But in a town this self-indulgently violent and artfully superficial, it's hard to take any such subtext seriously.