Um … wow?! Strangest movie that I have seen this year but definitely one of the more interesting. This wasn’t actually a movie that I was desperately needing to see on the big screen but I wasn’t going to say no when R asked if I wanted to see it. And I’m glad that she convinced me to go .. okay, it didn’t really take much to convince me. There are many words to describe the film: violent, bloody, and most definitely sexy … think Pulp Fiction but more!!!

In Sin City, Robert Rodriguez brings to the screen his adaptation of three of Frank Miller’s graphic novels with a teaser from a fourth to introduce the movie (a teaser that Rodriguez used to convince a reluctant Miller to relinquish the movie rights.) Whilst the three stories are told more or less separately and in order if you look carefully you can see the interweaving between them.

The first of the stories has Bruce Willis as Hartigan, a straight-laced cop who saves a little girl, Nancy, from a child-rapist named Junior. Once he takes care of Junior he is shot by his own partner and we are left wondering whether he survives or not. After the third story (see below) is told, we return to Hartigan and find that he has ended up taking the blame for the rape and spends the next ten years in solitary in prison cell. When Hartigan has cause to believe that Nancy’s life is in danger he confesses to sins he doesn’t commit, gains immediate release and seeks her out – to find that she has grown up into a incredibly sexy exotic dancer who is in love with him. Too late Hartigan realises his release is a trap to lead Junior, now the Yellow Bastard, straight to Nancy.

In the second story, Mickey Rourke plays a giant behomoth of a man, Marv, who seeks revenge when a prostitute, Goldie (Jaime King), and the only woman to treat him well, is murdered. Rourke is compelling as Marv, but sometimes I had to wonder if he was a man or an animal – he didn’t look real at all. Elijah Wood as .. well, you’ll see, was outright creepy and the scene where the wolf was … well, again, can’t give too much away but it was hmm … interesting. The kind of interesting that has you going “oh gross” and turning away.

Finally, Clive Owen makes an appearance in the third instalment, where he is involved in the murder of a abusive cop (Benicio Del Toro) that threatens to shatter the truce between Basin City police and prostitutes in Old Town headed by Gail (Rosario Dawson). There is some “nice” swordsmanship by Devon Aoki’s samurai character Miho in this one.

Overall the movie was visually stunning and the stories compelling but be prepared for a lot of gore – something the black and white filming with splashes of colour seemed to emphasise.