Exceptional acting, violent plot give comic book big-screen life

Imagine a place beyond the law — where hard-boiled criminals rule, violence is a way of life and armed hookers rule the night. No, it isn’t Vegas, it’s Basin City, the rain-slicked, smoke-filled setting of “Sin City.”

“Sin City” is a result of a collaboration between graphic novel artist Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, director of “Spy Kids” and “Desperado.” The film is based on three of Miller’s ultraviolent books.

In the first installment, Hartigan (Bruce Willis) tries to rescue an 11-year old girl kidnapped by a pedophile. He’s one day from retirement and has a bad heart, but he can’t reconcile letting the girl get tortured and killed, even with his partner (Michael Madsen) discouraging him the whole time.

Hartigan gets himself in too deep, and powerful people try to make sure he pays for his meddling.

The second story features an amazing performance by Mickey Rourke. (I’m as surprised by that sentence as you are.) He plays Marv, a rock-ribbed killer who gets one night of passion with Goldie, the woman of his dreams.

When she’s killed, Marv starts piling up bodies on his way to revenge. The graphic violence mixes with Marv’s black humor to make the gruesome, violent Marv a somewhat lovable character to the sadist in all of us.

Lastly, we meet Dwight (Clive Owen), a murderer — most characters here are — starting over with a new face. He can’t get into any more trouble, or he’ll get the chair.

He meets a Shellie, a bartender at his favorite dive and goes home with her. The problem is, her abusive ex-boyfriend (a demonic Benicio Del Toro) shows up drunk with a rowdy posse in tow.

Dwight needs to keep his nose clean but also feels a need to protect women. He’s soon thrown in the middle of the war for Sin City’s Old Town, where there’s potential for a lot of women to be killed.

These three interweaving tales are bookended by appearances by Josh Hartnett as a mysterious hit man, done to set the mood and give “Sin City” a symmetrical feel.

The strongest point of the film is that it gets stellar performances from both expected and unexpected sources. Owen, Jessica Alba as Nancy Callahan and Willis do, of course, excellent jobs. Owen’s American accent is almost believable, Alba jumps off the screen with sex appeal and no one can play gritty like Bruce Wilis.

More surprising are phenomenal acting jobs from the supposedly “washed-up” Mickey Rourke and the relatively underexposed Rosario Dawson. For obscure film buffs, Powers Boothe and Rutger Hauer also show up and look very, very menacing in their bit parts.

Rourke fulfills the potential that many thought he had squandered years ago by turning what could have been an unsympathetic psycho into a driven, dare we say, charming character.

Dawson’s tough-as-nails hooker surpasses all clichés and conveys passion, anger and desperation with convincing effect. It doesn’t hurt that she’s easy on the eyes and wearing fishnets.

“Sin City” has been, and will continue to be, plagued by accusations of misogynistic views of women. The point isn’t entirely without merit. There is violence against women, and they’re often pictured in various stages of nakedness.

A look past the superficial will show something more meaningful. Marv calls Goldie “the Goddess” in a scene that verges on the poetic. The prostitutes of Old Town are determined, tough and kick around more than their share of overbearing males. Even abused Shellie stands up to her drunk boyfriend, calling him a coward even as he rages. The women of “Sin City” rule the show, much as critics of Miller’s writing hate to admit.

The hard-boiled detective noir is upped to the 10th degree with Rodriguez following the panels of Miller’s graphic novels meticulously. “Sin City” will one day be pointed to as one of the coolest movies ever. Everyone smokes, even while emptying two clips into the air.

The content of the film may turn away some moviegoers, and it’s surprising that “Sin City” didn’t earn itself an NC-17 rating. Don’t bring the little cousins or nephews; there are things here I’m probably not old enough to see.

Regardless, there isn’t enough space here for all the good things about “Sin City” to be said. Aside from a startlingly uneven job by Madsen, it’s all nearly perfect. “Sin City” is wickedly, sadistically fun.

Grade: A+