Sin City (R, 2005)

Two of today's greatest stylists join forces in an audacious synthesis of graphic novel and movie set in a world where the villains are unspeakably evil, the heroes are compromised and overmatched, and the city is filled with corruption but the country is even worse. SIN CITY's three stories about heroes battling overwhelming odds circle around each other, amplify each other, and ultimately intersect. Marv (Mickey Rourke) is a gigantic brute of a man who likes to fight. He has had one perfect night of love with a golden-haired prostitute who she said she wanted him. But the next morning, he wakes up to find her murdered. The world always seems incomprehensible and dreamlike to Marv, especially when he thinks he sees his Goldie again. But she says she is her twin sister. Marv knows -- he thinks he knows -- that justice requires him to kill the people who murdered his angel, no matter what the cost. John (Bruce Willis) is a cop about to retire. But he cannot go until he finds a way to rescue a little girl named Nancy from a man who molests and kills children but is protected by the forces that control Sin City. And Dwight (Clive Owen) is a man who has angered his girlfriend's predatory and abusive ex-boyfriend (Benicio Del Toro). Their dispute will shred the fragile compromise between the corrupt cops and the gang bosses that allows the prostitutes to control their own section of Sin City.

Robert Rodriguez and co-director Frank Miller (the writer/artist of the Sin City graphic novels) create a faithful, shot-for-shot rendition of each stunning panel. Hard, resolute voice-overs accompany stark, inky images. There are brief flashes and flutters of color -- red for brake-lights, a heart-shaped bed, a lightning-streaked sky, a sleek getaway car, and for blood. Yellow for the golden curls of a dead hooker and the jaundiced skin of a cowardly villain whose toxic perversions have turned him the color of bile. This is a masterpiece of technique, bravura film-making with sure and complete mastery of tone, setting, and mood. A lesser cast would be lost, even invisible, but Rourke, Willis, and especially Owen are every bit as arresting as the images around them. Most of the female characters are more props than characters, but Rosario Dawson and Jessica Alba make strong impressions.

The film is overwhelming at times, intentionally keeping viewers off-kilter by combining grand heroics, stunning beauty, hideous grotesquery, outrageous butchery, toughness and innocence, tragedy and comedy. This is a movie where a man's hand is sliced off and then he slips on it like a banana peel. It exists precisely on the edge between exploitation and artistic statement, ultimately saving itself from toppling over with the sincerity of its tone, the beauty of its images, and the honor of its heroes.

Studio: Dimension
Director: Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson
Genre: Action/Adventure
Run time: 126 minutes
Theatrical release: March 31, 2005
DVD release: August 16, 2005
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content including dialogue