Sin and Circumstance

Rating: 7/10 (3 April 2005)

Sin City is an interesting, hyper stylized little film that I can recommend, along with the cautionary heads up notice of the existence of a couple of problems. That's the simplest thing I can say about the movie. There are some great performances in terms of the nailing of characters from the source down perfectly but at the same time, there was one thing about the whole package that bugged me and I realized what it was just before the halfway mark of the movie. The movie is very faithful to the original Frank Miller graphic novels, with most of the film draped in shadows and dialogue that sounds like it was written by Chandler's ghost and while it is admittedly cool as all hell to actually see a project like this on the screen (projected digitally no less...), I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe, the film was being a little TOO faithful to the novels. I felt that the movie didn't flow quite as well as it should have, mainly because it seemed to me the filmmakers were a little too obsessed with recreating every frame down to the last detail, so much so that it felt too obvious and aware of itself in a lot of the scenes. I felt like many of the performances were hampered by the restrictions on them placed by having to stick so closely to the graphic novels. Some of the dialogue scenes seemed to go on forever also, dragging the film in between moments of breathless violence, which were pretty intense. Don't get me wrong, it was still really fun to watch some of these pros in action, especially Benicio Del Toro, Bruce Willis, Clive Owen and Elijah Wood who turns in a fantastically creepy turn as a silent cannibal in possession of some serious fighting skills. His character along with Yellow Bastard (Nick Stahl, reminding us that the kid can play a really hateful character as well as the savior of the free world from the machines) gives the film a good amount of energy that good villains can bring to a story. Mickey Rourke gets a special mention from me for his work as Marv and proves as many others have done in the past before him that the world loves a great comeback as much as it loves to watch people get torn down. He's probably the best reason I can give you to watch this film, as he is arguably the heart and soul of it. The best performances come from those you normally expect to deliver, really. Some of the other performances kind of reeked with Michael Madsen coming to mind and Rutger Hauer doing more overacting than usual. Devon Aoki was awesome as Miho and Carla Gugino is going to be remembered fondly after this one, believe me. Jessica Alba didn't impress me too much character wise but damn, she's something to see, moving the way she does. The women are photographed with a lot of love and it's in this way that the movie really works hand and hand with the rest of the visuals. Some of the CGI is a little too obvious for my tastes but the look is perfect for this sort of thing in a way. Technically, the film is awesome but maybe it's just my appreciation for practical effects that makes me wish that there was less computer gimmickery. I can't help but wonder what this film would've been like if it had been shot on location rather than in front of a green screen. It's a cool effect that draws too much attention to itself after a while. In the end though, Robert Rodriguez made up for the all star vomit fest that was Once Upon a Time in Mexico with this. I have to give him credit for attempting something like this and I'd really like to see another Sin City movie done in the same way. Lastly, I also loved the music in the film.
Sin City is a well produced gimmick film that regrettably starts to wear a little thin. I started getting a little tired of the whole idea soon after it started but these are dismissible gripes considering that there were still so many things to enjoy about it then there were to dislike. This is definitely one to see in the theaters, especially if you want to see a different kind of comic book movie and something pretty original.
RATING: ***1/2 out of *****.