by Randy Lander

SIN CITY the movie Dimension Films/Troublemaker Studios Directors: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller & Quentin Tarantino Starring: Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Elijah Wood, Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carla Gugino, Josh Hartnett, Michael Madsen, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke & Nick Stahl Release Date: Friday, April 1 As comic-book fans, we've learned to compromise. Even the best comic-book films like X-Men 2, Spider-Man and Superman have featured compromises to bring the comic-book successfully to the screen. That's fair; after all, they're two different mediums, what works in a comic might not necessarily work in a film, right? However, with Sin City, Robert Rodriguez has raised the bar for all future comics-to-film adaptations, because Sin City the movie feels so much like the comic, looks so much like the comic and yet has a life of its own as a film that it really is like seeing the printed page translated directly onto the screen. Not just in look, although many shots do look exactly like you remember the comic panels, and not just in casting, although almost every role is perfectly cast, but in tone... Sin City the film feels exactly the way Sin City should, and I can't imagine any fan of the graphic novels walking out of the theatre feeling any less than thrilled. How the mainstream will react to Sin City is another question, and one I'll be curious to see. Certainly the level of violence and sensuality found in Sin City isn't uncommon in cinema at this point, because you'll find outrageous dark comedy and violence in the successful Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill flicks, and the nudity and sexuality is no more than you'd find in a steamy romance flick. But the film, like the comics, has such a deliberate throwback, pulpy cynicism and weariness about the world that I wonder if audiences will be in on the joke or will squirm uncomfortably in their seats, uncertain if they're supposed to be laughing as Marv tortures his way across the city or not. My suspicion is that it will get these mainstream audiences on its side, because Rodriguez and Miller have succeeded in capturing the dark humor alongside with the genuine darkness of the movie. There were a lot of questions going into this film, and most of them were answered very much to my satisfaction. How can the stylized black and white with spot colors work? Turns out, it works very well. Because the black and white is a special effect, not just the film style, it becomes part of the film's atmosphere and look and to be honest, I didn't really even think about it being in black and white while I was watching it. I don't think that the stigma that affects black and white art films or comics will affect Sin City, because it's not really a black and white film, it's a color film that mostly uses black and white as its colors. And when color is used, it pops. For the most part, the film sticks with Miller's use of color, so that (for instance) the Yellow Bastard is a sickly, almost glowing yellow against the stark grays of the backdrop, but Miller has the benefit of hindsight here, so he and Rodriguez have added color where it works as well. The love scene between Goldie and Marv that opens the flick is especially well served by the addition of red to the heart-shaped sheets or the vivid lipstick on Goldie's lips. The color is used effectively to highlight and to shock, to draw the eye as much as provide a little variation in flavor. Another question: How would Rodriguez and Miller blend three (four, if you count the prologue) stories together? This is something that works especially well, and it helps that Miller laid the groundwork for it in the graphic novels. While the translation of the Sin City graphic novels is pretty accurate, Miller and Rodriguez feel free to shift a few things, so that Dwight's scene reflecting on Marv takes place in the middle of Marv's story, showing us how these two characters link up. There's even a wholly new epilogue that ties everything together using one of the characters from early in the film, which I don't want to give away, but I will say that it's very clever. I wasn't quite as sold on having Elijah Wood's Kevin show up in an earlier visit to the farm, as it begged the question of why he didn't get involved, but that is a very minor complaint. And really, that's what any complaints I have about the movie can be called: very minor. Because Rodriguez and Miller created such a faithful translation of Sin City, what is missing stands out all the more, and little things that I wouldn't even have noticed in your average comic-book flick are noticeable. I noticed, for example, that the scene with Marv's mother wasn't in the film, but I understand that it really didn't earn the screen time in a movie that was already pushing past two hours and couldn't afford to feel slow at any point. There are tweaked lines, and missing lines, but the dialogue is all very familiar to Sin City readers, even if some of it comes across in ways that you might not have imagined it. For instance, Rosario Dawson gives Gail's "What kind do you want? I've got a collection" line about handcuffs a playful, dirty and very funny spin. Which brings me to another area in which Sin City succeeds, and that is in casting. For the most part, every actor absolutely nailed their part, and in most cases actually brought something extra to it. Mickey Rourke's Marv is perhaps the standout, the perfect embodiment of crazy, tough and determined with just the right edge of dark humor (when he's spilling the pills and eating them like candy, it's laugh-out-loud funny) and physical presence. I also have to give special credit to the beautiful and talented Carla Gugino, not only for her brave (and important) choice to do the full nudity of tough parole officer Lucille, but in her ability to convey a vulnerable moment when she screams about what Kevin has done to her, without ever losing the tough chick appeal that made her such a likable character. Devon Aoki's performance as the deadly, silent Miho also stands out, as she has no dialogue, only a physical performance, to convey Miho's prowess and personality, and she nails it perfectly. Nicky Katt gets in a great, if brief, performance as hitman/bodyguard Stuka that is probably the funniest part of the whole movie. Clive Owen brings a touch of sarcastic humor and charm to Dwight that accentuates what the character had in the comics. Rosario Dawson is ferocious and sexy and funny, like a tigress poured into a leather, lace and chain bondage dream outfit, as Gail. I'm still not entirely sure that Jessica Alba was the perfect choice for Nancy, as she gets across the vulnerable youth of the character quite well but doesn't have the raw sexual power that Nancy gives off in the comics. Then again, I'm not sure any woman not created on paper would be able to do Miller's stripper goddess justice. With a running time of just over two hours, Sin City really moves. Rodriguez has cut the flick together so that the audience is never bored, and he has cut enough dialogue to keep it from being overly talky while leaving in enough distinctive dialogue to retain the noir feel of Miller's narration. I'll go out on a limb and say that even a movie as star-studded as Sin City might be overlooked by the Academy come awards time because of its genre leanings and over-the-top sensibilities, but if that is the case, it's a damn shame. Sin City isn't just one of the best comic-to-film translations I've ever seen, it's one of the best movies I've seen for a while. 10/10 Email Randy Lander comments about this review.