Movie Reviews and News from Vince Patton

Vince Patton
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Brilliant Directors Showcase Talent in Frank Miller's Sin City

In Frank Miller’s Sin City, the dark trio of vignettes based on the adult comic strip, characters dash from one perilous moment to another. The characters and their exploits are as real and as outlandish as those in the 1990s classic Pulp Fiction. The similarities with that cultural phenomenon don’t end there. Sin City’s directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez have enlisted the services of Quentin Tarantino, a frequent collaborator with Rodriguez and the man who popularized non-linear storytelling, to direct one of the film’s most bizarre segments. In the most creative and extended use of exposition since Uma Thurman’s three minutes of hell in Kill Bill, Volume 2, the odd characters in these stories ponder their next act of revenge, their desperate attempts to escape impending doom, and their desire to save the lives of those they love most.

As the trilogy begins, Bruce Willis’s Hartigan, a worn detective nearing retirement, is hot on the trail of Rourk Jr. (Nick Stahl), a rich, young hoodlum who is the son of a corrupt senator. A sudden series of events drastically alters the course of Hartigan’s life as well as the lives of the hoodlum and the young woman he has abducted.

Frank Miller’s Sin City is one more in a long line of recent films to employ an elliptical time frame to tell its stories. In a lesser film this might be dismissed as an extraneous device, but here the method is used to good effect to introduce characters important to the backstory. The film moves us from Hartigan’s adventures to those of Marv (Mickey Rourke), a brute of a man who is smitten with a young prostitute. Marv wakes up to find the prostitute dead and soon discovers he’s been framed for her murder. In the longest and most compelling of the three vignettes, Marv sets out to avenge the woman’s death and battles black-hearted villains such as a silent, flesh-eating hit man portrayed by Elijah Wood.

Mickey Rourke delivers the film’s most convincing performance. His face filled with scars and cuts, Marv is strong yet vulnerable. His sadness consumes him. Although quite large, he walks the city streets with semi-hunched shoulders, looking for clues to his great love’s murder. Rourke’s larger here than in any film in recent history. Last seen as a slimy, weezily lawyer in last year’s lurid thriller, Man on Fire, Rourke towers over everyone else literally and figuratively. Although Marv’s story is ultimately a tale of revenge, there are small doses of humor as Marv encounters a variety of characters while tracking down one of his one true love’s killers. As in Pulp Fiction and some of Tarantino’s later films, humor is often incorporated at the least likely times---in the midst of executions and during critical battles.

As the second vignette begins, viewers see Clive Owen and Brittany Murphy, two of Hollywood’s brightest stars, embracing in a kitchen. Owen has portrayed a hero for most of his film career. From his early work in Croupier and Gosford Park to his performances in last year’s I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and King Arthur, Owen has possessed a level of confidence, charisma, and bravura that instantly engenders trust in those close to his characters and fear in those who oppose them. In this story Owen’s Dwight is doing what many heroes in comic strips do: rescue women in distress. This time the woman in distress is Shellie, who is rebuffing advances from Jackie Boy, a drunken, womanizing, and rogue cop portrayed by Benicio del Toro. Jackie Boy and a couple of pestering and snickering sidekicks pay a visit to Shellie. After rescuing Shellie by scaring off Jackie Boy and his cohorts, Dwight stumbles upon the men just as they begin to stir up trouble for Gail (Rosario Dawson) and her gang of prostitutes.

This middle vignette features one of the oddest scenes in movies this year, and it should come as no surprise that it was directed by Quentin Tarantino, who has built an impressive resume directing odd scenes in brilliant and conspicuous films. The scene reflects Tarantino’s fascination with the macabre and his unique talent for making audiences laugh and cringe at the same time. Tarantino’s work is only slightly memorable here, largely due to the caliber of acting and directing involved with the first and third acts. Although Tarantino doesn’t display vintage form here, he should take solace that this film owes much of its style and tone to his highly vaulted Pulp Fiction.

Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile) appears in the latter half of the second vignette as Manute, a one-eyed super villain who kidnaps Gail and threatens to close down her prostitution ring and allow corrupt policemen and politicians to assume control of her territory. Duncan, whose large size and deep voice normally make him an oddity in films, fits right in with the rest of Miller’s characters. Duncan’s earlier work in the little-regarded Daredevil should have prepared him well for his stint in Frank Miller's Sin City because he blends in nicely here with the rest of the villains.

The third vignette develops around a character shown in an earlier story and uses that character’s trials and tribulations to draw the connection between nearly all of the characters in the film with surprising clarity. The material in this vignette relies on the comic strip’s richly drawn backstory. As more is revealed about the tortured souls of Sin City, viewers will understand why serialized storytelling is a sublime art form when left in the hands of ingenious plotters. While it never quite rises to the level of art, the inventively crafted Sin City sits near the top of an otherwise moribund year for films in 2005, and despite its adult subject matter, near the top rung in the ever-evolving world of films based on comic strips.

Grade: B+
Content: Intense violence, nudity, profanity

Soon on Video

Confused and Muddled Constantine Faulters

Fresh from completing The Matrix trilogy, Keanu Reeves returns to similar territory as a special detective in the supernatural thriller Constantine. Reeves displays his Matrix character’s traits and tics in his role as John Constantine, save for a constant cough from smoking that he’s told will bring him imminent death. Reeves, merely competent at best, is surrounded by talented actors such as Academy Award nominee Tilda Swinton (Orlando and The Deep End) as the Angel of Gabriel—an example of truly inspired casting; Rachel Weisz ( Chain Reaction and Runaway Jury), as a detective who enlists Constantine’s help in proving that her twin sister’s mysterious plunge from a hospital rooftop wasn’t a suicide; and Academy Award nominee Djimon Honsou (Amistad and In America) as an owner of a nightclub with special powers of his own. As in the latter Matrix films, Constantine relies more on its premise and intermittently impressive visual effects than almost anything else. Problems abound in this derivative and ultimately disappointing thriller that fails to capitalize on the talents of its fine supporting cast, drops entire plot points crucial to the development of a coherent story, and wanders aimlessly through a protracted ending. By the end of its nearly two hours of running time, Constantine does nothing to distinguish itself from the legions of science fiction and supernatural thrillers with theological and philosophical weighty premises whose creators own inability to articulate key concepts leave viewers with far more questions than answers.

Grade: C-
Content: Violence

Movie News

Robert DeNiro launched the TriBeCa Film Festival in New York City on April 19. The festival will end on May 1.

Terrence Howard (Dead Presidents and Ray) was the talk of the town at the Sundance Film Festival for his performance in Hustle & Flow. The African-American actor will next be seen in Crash, the new film from director Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby).

Sydney Pollack (Three Days of the Condor, Tootsie, Out of Africa) became the first director allowed to film a motion picture in the United Nations building. His latest thriller The Interpreter, which stars Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, will feature scenes filmed in the UN building. The film opened to predominantly positive reviews on April 22. The UN denied use of the building to Alfred Hitchkock.

George Lucas reportedly consulted with Steven Spielberg during production of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. The PG-13-rated conclusion to the trilogy opens on May 19.

Lasse Halstrom (The Cider House Rules, Once Around, and Something to Talk About, is set to direct Hoax, which tells the story of Clifford Irving, who wrote a fake biography on Howard Hughes. Industry insiders report that Richard Gere is interested in the project.

Christian Bale (American Psycho and Empire of the Sun) inked a deal with Warner Bros. to star in three Batman films. Batman Begins, the first of the three, will open on June 17. Christopher Nolan (Memento and Insomnia) directed the $150-million-film.


About Vince Patton

Vince Patton is a freelance writer and editor. He regularly reviews films. He previously served as editor of Let's Go to the Movies for Older Youth and Let's Go to the Movies for Young Adults.

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New reviews and up-to-date news on movies will be posted approximately once a week.