I took away his weapon. Both of them.

I watched Sin City last night and I am torn up about it. I slept about two hours, just thrashed about in the bed, and I blame the damn movie. I’m so close to just loving it outright—if only it weren’t for all the hookers.

In the movie’s favour:
- It is absolutely beautiful, every frame, even when you’re watching some guy get crotch-shot or in other ways dismembered
- (this is an overused phrase so sort of devalued, but I mean it when I say) I haven’t seen anything like it before
- The cast is just short of perfect
- It doesn’t just have you cheering for anti-heroes, it creates a universe so horrible that a good guy/bad guy classification is impossible

Detracting from is this:
- Seeming misogyny that I have trouble explaining away

The majority of the women in this movie are hookers. Failing that they’re strippers, naked lesbians, or waitresses that routinely get the shit beat out of them. Now given, every character in this movie is a criminal or a lowlife; as far as the men go they’re cannibals or rapists or wildly corrupt cops, and even the protagonists are conscienceless killers. So maybe all’s fair. Or maybe not.

This is why I could never make a living as a film critic: you’re expected to come down absolutely on whether it was a good movie or a bad one, if you liked it or you didn’t; you have to confirm the absence or presence of deeper levels of meaning and, in the case of its presence, smugly hint that you understood it all.

Two more observations on the misogyny front and then I’ll move on. One: even the non-hooker characters are naked or in their panties when there’s not a great reason to be in such a state. Two: the graphic novels also had male nudity, but this didn’t make it to the screen. (That’s all I’ll say. Maybe I’m totally off base, because a quick scan of rotten tomatoes revues doesn’t reveal anyone else screaming about the same thing. And I want to be wrong on this.)

I’d like to provide a synopsis of the story, but there’s so much to it, so many murders, betrayals, and conspiracies, that a summary would just end up sounding trite. And the fun is in not knowing what’s next. Because there are so many stars, star wattage is no guarantee of a long life span; everyone is the red-shirted ensign from Star Trek in this movie.

I have to admit that it took me at least ten minutes to really get into it and chuck out my disbelief. The dialogue is tricky—it’s hard boiled noir-speak: “This is blood for blood and by the gallons. This is the old days, the bad days, the all or nothing days.” In the wrong hands, it falls flat. Michael Madsen has a particularly bad go at them early on, Rory Gilmore falls just short. But all the leads are great, particularly Mickey Rourke, who was perfectly cast. (And who knew? Jesus, it’s Mickey Rourke! I was amazed to see him in a movie that didn’t co-star Dennis Rodman, let alone that he would actually be good in it.) Brittany Murphy also surprised me. She was the one I was least interested in at the start and she gives the best performance of any of the women.

On the drive out to Quebec this weekend, we were listening to an insufferable call-in show where parents were voicing their displeasure about the violence in this movie. None of them had seen it, of course. These are the same people who wanted to ban Catcher in the Rye from schools when I was a kid because someone told someone that someone heard that the word fuck appeared in the book. Anyways. There’s no question that the movie is incredibly violent. There’s a scene of revenge at the end that is so brutal I actually cupped a hand over my mouth in shock—and I’m about as desensitized as they come. But that’s what reviews are for. That’s why we get these remarkably specific (albeit confusing) movie rating nowadays, like: “Rated R for sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content including dialogue.” Sexual content including dialogue? That just ain’t right! I don’t mind two people screwin’ so long as they’re not talking while they’re at it. When I have kids, my view on movie violence might change, but for now I’m just looking out for me and I always know what I’m in for.

In the end, there’s no question that I liked the movie. I’d see it again right now if I could, I’ll buy it when it comes out on DVD, and you’ll see it in my 50 films list next week. I just feel conflicted about liking it so much.