Old school style, new school savagery

Booze, broads and bullets -- this is the world of Frank Miller's "Sin City," a series of celebrated graphic novels now translated to celluloid by Miller and writer/director/producer/cinematographer/editor/composer Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez left the Director's Guild of America to ensure Miller's co-direction credit, as well as freeing up filmmaker friend Quentin Tarantino for guest directing duties. Smart move -- this is undeniably the most faithful comic book adaptation ever brought to the big screen.\nThe movie is structured somewhat similarly to Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," in that it's drawn from three (four counting the prologue and epilogue featuring Josh Hartnett) of Miller's seven "Sin City" books -- these being "The Hard Goodbye," "The Big Fat Kill" and "That Yellow Bastard." This allows characters from different stories to interact with one another, sometimes in spite of having been killed earlier in the picture.\n"Sin City" kicks off with the first third of "Bastard," casting Bruce Willis as Hartigan, a hardened cop with a heart of gold, pursuing a senator's sicko son (Nick Stahl). This segues into "Goodbye," in which massive malefactor Marv (Mickey Rourke, in a career and film-best performance) looks to avenge angelic Goldie's (Jaime King) murder at the hands of cannibalistic cretin Kevin (Elijah Wood -- far from the Shire). Then comes "Kill," where dashing Dwight (a cool as a cucumber Clive Owen) clashes with crooked cop Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro, playing against the nobility of his "Traffic" trooper) while romancing barmaid Shellie (Brittany Murphy) and homicidal hooker Gail (Rosario Dawson, sporting Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" duds and Pat Benatar's hairdo). Lastly, "Bastard" is brought to a close when Bruce busts out of the big house to save supple stripper Nancy (Jessica Alba) from the clutches of our titular yellow terror (also Stahl).\nSo far so good -- the film, shot digitally in black and white with flourishes of color, is undeniably gorgeous in spite of its grisly content and is slavishly faithful to its source material. This is a bodacious blessing and a compact curse. With Rodriguez using Miller's comic book panels as storyboards, coverage and transitions are occasionally lacking. The voice-overs that worked so well in the comics also seem hackneyed onscreen sometimes. Lastly, while Willis is great as Hartigan, he's too young to play a man nearing 70 and his makeup doesn't convey the age aptly. The role would've been tailor-made for Lee Marvin were he still alive. Perhaps Clint Eastwood could've donned his duster?\nNitpicks aside, "Sin City" is one hell of a ride -- noirish and nasty. It's rare for old school style and new school savagery to meld so cohesively: Miller, Rodriguez, Tarantino and their all-star cast make it fly.