SIN CITY
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: The flash is exaggerated and the plot has
minimal importance in this hyper-noir crime story
based on Frank Miller's graphic novel. To take a
phrase from the script, it is "loud and nasty."
I have more respect than affection for this
admittedly successful effort to give a film the
feel of a graphic novel. But the characters were
just not developed and the story has the resonance
of a "Heavy Metal" comic book story. Rating: +1
(-4 to +4) or 6/10
What's black and white and red all over? Well, one answer is the
blood-soaked, enhanced-monochrome adaptation of Frank Miller's
graphic novel SIN CITY. In this film co-directors Robert
Rodriguez and Frank Miller do for film noir what Sergio Leone did
for the western. They make a film that is solid dramatic scenes
without the plot connective tissue. I cannot say that there was
no plot to SIN CITY. By the end of the film the pieces
remarkably seem to add up to a kind of plot. (Please don't write
me for explanations. I may have followed the plot for at most
five minutes and then I might have been fooling myself.) But
from one scene to the next the writers seem to be just throwing
in plot complications that lead to more sensationalized scenes.
This film has multiple castrations, a hanging, many nearly nude
women, multiple serial killers, corrupt politicians . . . the
list goes on and on and on and on.
SIN CITY has two kinds of scenes, those that are highly-charged
and those that are super-charged. For me the excess of excess of
excess became off-putting. The story has not one really
interesting character and probably not one uninteresting scene.
The dialog is not just over-ripe, it is downright fermented.
Understanding how any specific scene fits into the overall plot
is not only pointless, it is nearly impossible. Perhaps it is
best for the viewer to just let the film wash over him. There
are multiple plots including one with the mob trying to take over
Oldtown. That the seedy neighborhood of a place called Basin
City that seems to have equal parts of New York and Los Angeles.
Also, there are interlocking plots concerning two or three serial
killers.
This is a film of much more style than substance. Even if the
scenes all fit together to make a plot, it would be a rather
hackneyed one. One scene after another is soaked in blood and
testosterone. If you drew a line from Raymond Chandler to Mickey
Spillane and extended it out three times you would get to SIN
CITY.
Maybe there is not more blood than in other film but it just
seems there is a lot because it is highlighted. The film is shot
in color then the color is removed entirely or with the possible
exception of one or two objects in a scene. Maybe the entire
scene will be monochrome and just the copious splattered blood
will be in vivid red. This was a visual technique pioneered in
the 1992 film ZENTROPA and in television ads for some "simple
yellow pill" whose name I have forgotten. Stephen Spielberg also
used it for some scenes of SCHINDLER'S LIST. Here the technique
combines with Robert Rodriguez's terrific photography to recreate
the potent if less than realistic images of the art work in a
Frank Miller comic book. And the imitation of graphic style is
impressive.
Bruce Willis plays John Hartigan, a misunderstood hero with a
good heart and a bad one (figuratively and medically
respectively). This is a film that is top-heavy with familiar
faces, some in unfamiliar make-up. Without knowing he was in the
film, I spotted Mickey Rourke, but I was proud of myself for
doing so. Also along are notables like Elijah Wood, Benicio Del
Toro, Michael Clark Duncan, Josh Hartnett, Michael Madsen, Clive
Owen, Nick Stahl, Rutger Hauer, and Powers Booth. Wow, that is
an impressive cast, and at least they know to not play the film
tongue-in-cheek.
This is a film full of testosterone-stoked cliches. There is a
lot of sound and fury but not much in the way of any substance.
But visually it is hypnotic. On balance I rate it +1 on the -4
to +4 scale or 6/10.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2005 Mark R. Leeper
========== X-RAMR-ID: 39652 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1375930 X-RT-TitleID: 1143969 X-RT-AuthorID: 1309 X-RT-RatingText: 6/10
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