Comic Book Noir: Sin City

I went up to New York these past few days, and while I drowned myself in new and strange art, I took a diversion and went to see Sin City, the latest offering from Robert Rodriguez, of El Mariachi and Spy Kids fame. Needless to say, I was impressed with the visuals -- the movie is taken panel for panel from the comic book series of the same name, done by Frank Miller, who is best known for revitalizing Batman in the 1980's with his Dark Knight series. I remember being in college when the first Sin City book came out, and it is one of the three stories in the movie. Everything is black and white -- and sometimes red, and the cinematography is stunning, the way the scenes are composed, the black framing the white. The acting is okay, I mean, this is hammed up guy noir stuff, where everybody's a tough guy, and all the women are objects of their affection -- or a left hook. Bruce Willis probably turns in his finest role since 12 Monkeys, though even there he had a bit more to do. Jennifer Alba plays another hottie, but not much to do, and Guillermo del Toro plays another in a long line of dramatically odd characters that reinforces his good acting abilities. Rutger Hauer, Mickey Rourke, and a host of other all star actors are in this film. My main problem with it is the droning, monotonoud voice overs that serve as text panels in the comic book; here they become annoying and detract from the visuals. Halfway in the movie the director seems to agree -- the narratives become less and less. It was kind of like Pulp Fiction without some of the humanity that it had -- this was a very decent interpretation of the comic book, but I felt it could have expanded on it more and not be so slavish. It's a depiction of a dark, nihilistic world treaded by Jim Thompson, Horacy McCoy and David Goodis, but on steroids.