[7]

Robert Rodriquez and Frank Miller join forces, with a little help from guest director Quentin Tarantino, to bring Miller’s much-loved Sin City to the screen. The result is less a film adaptation than a graphic novel come to life. The color palette is restrained, usually resorting to faithful recreations of Miller’s black and white panel work. The hyper-stylized approach works well for a movie that wears its heart and its themes on its sleeve. The cast is, by and large, very good — especially Mickey Rourke as the ugly but noble protagonist in the section entitled “The Hard Goodbye.” Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro shine in the Tarantino-directed sequence. With Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, Michael Madsen, Jessica Alba, and Rosario Dawson.