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Sin City By David DiCerto Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Walk down any back alley," goes the tough, terse narration in "Sin City" (Dimension) -- the visually bold but ultraviolent screen adaptation of Frank Miller's dark-edged graphic novel series -- "and you can find anything." What you will find is a hard-boiled fever dream of highly stylized brutality, morbid humor and sexual imagery which -- though intentionally over-the-top -- pushes the envelope of even its restrictive R rating. Directed by Robert Rodriguez ("Spy Kids") -- who shares the credit with Miller -- the anthology-formatted movie weaves together three of Miller's sordid urban tales, all of which play out in a shadowy, rain-slicked cesspool brimming with raw emotion. In this town, the sins are many, but most characters seek retribution rather than absolution, and unlike the stark black-and-white images, vice and virtue often blur into a muddy moral gray. The first yarn (divided into two parts which bookend the other stories) centers on world-weary John Hartigan (Bruce Willis), a good cop with a "bum ticker" -- the film's only clear-cut hero -- who strives to save an 11-year-old girl, Nancy (Makenzie Vega), from a corrupt senator's sadistic son (Nick Stahl). In the second part of the tale, set seven years in the future, Hartigan finds himself once again protecting Nancy, who has matured into an exotic dancer (Jessica Alba). The central character of the second story is less guardian than avenging angel. Barely recognizable under heavy prosthetics, Mickey Rourke plays brutish Marv, an implacable street brawler who becomes a one-man wrecking crew to avenge the murder of a prostitute (Jamie King) with whom he enjoyed a night of passion. The body count mounts as he "kills his way to the truth," and this includes gunning down a priest in a confessional. His rampage ultimately leads him to an eerie cannibal (Elijah Wood) being protected by a deranged Catholic cleric (Rutger Hauer). The final -- and least interesting -- episode revolves around Dwight (Clive Owen), an MTV-era Marlowe trying to avert a gang war after vigilante streetwalkers (led by Rosario Dawson) unwittingly kill a dirty lawman (Benicio Del Toro) in gruesome fashion. One scene in this segment was directed by fellow pulp aficionado Quentin Tarantino. Cinematically, "Sin City" is as daring as it is depraved, shot digitally in luscious black and white with accents of color -- a woman's red lipstick, for example -- for stylized effect. In addition to its glamorously gritty look, the film -- with its flawed and brooding anti-heroes, themes of revenge and redemption, and clipped, tough-talk dialogue -- pays homage to the crime fiction of Raymond Chandler, as well as the classic noir movies of the 1940s and '50s, though with excessive video-game gore. Like last year's "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," "Sin City" uses a cutting-edge computer-animation technique that allows the filmmaker to create and manipulate an imaginary world around the actors in order to match Miller's original artwork. The resulting scenes look as if they were ripped from the pages of the comic book. Still, though visually dazzling, the movie's technical wizardry can't camouflage the cartoonish characterizations and lack of emotional drama. As with "Sky Captain," the visual novelty plays to diminishing returns, and, in this case, hardly justifies the rapid-fire carnage. No matter how inventively shot, ugliness is still ugly. And for that reason you may not want to make a trip to "Sin City." The film contains gratuitous graphic violence, including dismemberment and decapitation, sexual situations with nudity, a suicide, an execution and rough and crude language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. - - - DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. END Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250 |
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