The Spirit
Filmed in the same stylistic way as Sin City (which Miller co-directed, as well as being the creator of the comic), this is a lovingly crafted and fairly accurate version of Will Eisner’s 40s comic strip. However, while the strip’s regular forays into the genres of noir, comedy, and love story worked quite well on the page, when brought together in a single movie it can feel fairly schizophrenic. As the titular superhero leaps from building to building, he resembles Batman—complete with moody monologue narration. But then, moments later, he might be dangling with his trousers down from the side of a building, à la The Three Stooges…. We catch up with our protagonist (Gabriel Macht) as he’s battling the crime lord of Central City, The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson in manic form), and trying to discover exactly why he can survive being shot, beaten to death, or even having a toilet thrown at him (in a ludicrous fight with The Octopus near the start). As the mystery of what Oc is looking for in a nearby lake unravels, so does The Spirit’s back history: once a cop called Denny Colt who somehow returned from the dead. We also find out what all this has to do with Denny’s old flame turned thief, Sand Saref (a smoking hot Eva Mendes), and her obsession with a classical myth. It all builds to a final confrontation between The Spirit and The Octopus, in which the true ‘superhuman’ will be decided. I can definitely see what Miller was trying to do with this movie, it’s just a pity it comes across as so damned odd. The hardboiled doesn’t rub shoulders very well with the surreal, and after Sin City you find yourself longing for more fight scenes in that vein, instead of which we get Jackson experimenting on his henchmen (in one bizarre scene he’s spliced a head with a foot which bounces around in front of him) or melting cats. The Nazi references seem completely out of place, especially when people are using mobile phones and photocopiers, and The Spirit’s unexplained effect on women descends into farce on occasion—like when one female cop drools over him during an exposition scene. The casting is pretty good, though, with only Scarlett Johansson misfiring as The Octopus’ sexy but intelligent sidekick. Extras include an alternate ending, the featurette ‘Miller on Miller,’ and audio commentary from the writer/director and producer Deborah Del Pete. Paul Kane
