Sin City

Rating: 9/10 (12 August 2010)

Many movies based on comic books (or graphic novels, if you insist) have been somewhat lackluster, but Sin City certainly delivers what it promises. The episodic film consists of four partly intertwining stories, each having different emphases even if they look superficially similar. The film opens and closes with an enigmatic hit-man (Josh Hartnett) taking care of his customers. The second and penultimate story arcs recount the fate of a somewhat honest cop Hartigan (Bruce Willis) who saves a young girl from a pedophile, but sees no justice being made. The next story is about Marv (Mickey Rourke), a big and gruff man of the streets who avows to avenge the death of a hooker he once briefly loved. The remaining story deals with Dwight (Clive Owen) who gets in trouble with the police while protecting his girlfriend and has to resort to the help of the vigilante prostitutes of a special region of the city.
In Sin City everything is exaggerated: the starkly contrasted black & white cinematography, the sparse but powerful use of colour, the pulpily poetic narration and the caricature-like characters. On the one hand it's awesome, kick-ass and all that, but on the other hand it is also distressing, overwhelmingly devoid of hope and even disgusting in spite of the over-the-top comical coolness it oozes. Especially Marv's story carries a sense of gruesome beauty in his devotion to the memory of the dead whore and his antagonist, a silent cannibal killer Kevin (Elijah Wood), is extremely creepy in his cold enjoyment of his fate – there are no signs of Frodo Baggins to be seen here. If Marv's story is the most dramatic, the Dwight one is the most comedic and provides more of the kick-ass type of action. It's all good, but I don't think the impact is as great as with Marv.
Hartigan's story is decent too and conveys the sense of isolation and diminishing hope within the bars of Hartigan's cramped solitary confinement cell. His antagonist, the literally Yellow Bastard (Nick Stahl), is rather overblown but who isn't, in Sin City? The hanging scene particularly (and literally) captures the feel of suffocation in the world where hope is a luxury. In contrast with the other stories, the Hit-man tale with Josh Hartnett bookending the film remains the shortest and the most enigmatic. Very little is revealed about the hit-man and he himself admits he doesn't know the reasons for the violence, but at the same time it comes out so naturally that avoiding it is not an option.
The constant, even ridiculous exaggerating of the cruel nature of Sin City could have been just a funny action movie or a laughably heavy-handed overstatement of Man's nature, but I think it works both as an actioner and an emotionally draining experience. If the viewer allows himself or herself be sucked into the world of Marv or Hartigan while looking beyond the obvious and intentional silliness, there's beauty to be found. It may not be very subtly or exquisitely presented, but in my opinion the pieces really fall into place here and everything makes sense – Sin City can only be strongly recommended.