Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
12/30/08
I've got a weakness for campy
genre fare. Even now I can rattle off the titles of great movies
I saw on USA Up All Night. I loved Hudson Hawk.
And you're free to check out my 4-star review of DOA:
Dead or Alive. As such, I'm the ideal audience for Frank Miller's
first solo directorial effort, The Spirit. Based upon Will
Eisner's groundbreaking WWII-era comic series, the movie covers ground
familiar to fans of previous retro superhero flicks The Shadow and
The Phantom, and has some of the same problems creating a world
that is Pulpishly arch and yet also dramatically viable. As such,
The Spirit is at its' best when it's just going for laughs (or,
perhaps I should say when it's GETTING laughs). What really makes
the movie worth seeing is the odd couple of the year: Samuel L. Jackson
and Scarlet Johansson as the villainous Octopus and his right-hand woman
Silken Floss. These two could entertain themselves all day either
by ruling the world or just melting cats, and I was delighted every moment
they were on screen. The rest of the time, it was touch and go.
The Spirit (Gabriel Macht)
isn't quite sure what he is. He used to be a man named Denny Colt,
then he died and rose from the grave unable to “stay hurt”. Behind
a Lone Ranger-style mask, he works with the police to fight the evil that
grips Central City. Tipped off to another heist by his arch-nemesis
The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), The Spirit swings into action and the
two men engage in a lengthy, futile battle, since neither of them can “stay
hurt”. The Octopus informs him of the obvious: they're the
same, but only the criminal mastermind knows why. Once the smoke
has cleared, none of the criminals at the scene got what they wanted.
The Octopus, his right-hand Silken Floss (Scarlet Johansson) and their
army of clones (all played by Louis Lombardi) were looking for a box holding
a vase filled with the Blood of Heracles but instead all they got was the
crummy Golden Fleece. So where's the Blood? In the hands of
would-be Fleece thief Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), who goes way back with The
Spirit. Tracking the Octopus' plans for that blood will lead The
Spirit to the secret of his origin, and perhaps to a reunion with Death
herself (Jaime King).
Fans of Miller's collaboration
with Robert Rodriguez on Sin City will immediately recognize The
Spirit's look, a computer-age marriage of live action, animation, CGI
and old-school drawing. What will catch them off guard is the tone:
while The Spirit's narrative rumination on his romance with The
City and his ongoing dance with Death Herself (aka Lorelei Rox) are certainly
Sin Cityesque noir touches, much of what we see has more in common
with the aforementioned Hudson Hawk than any superhero flick I can
recall. When it works, it's glorious: a lengthy scene where
an inexplicably Nazi-garbed Octopus and Floss lay out their plans to The
Spirit at great length (and take time out to melt that cat) is pure camp
Nirvana. But when it doesn't, particularly when the movie is leaning
hard on the notion that all women are madly in love with our hero and the
feeling is mutual, the actors seem caked with flop sweat. It's best
to keep him apart from his police allies, with Sarah Paulson having no
luck enlivening the dated role of the doctor who keeps him in one piece
while pining away, and Dan Lauria getting little to do but grumble that
The Spirit is a loose cannon. Best of this lot is Stana Katic, plucky
as the enthusiastic rookie Morganstern.
Sometimes he overreaches
trying to sell bad jokes, but Gabriel Macht is quite good in the lead role,
alternately charming and comically intense. Mendes is mostly eye
candy as Sand Saref, but under the watchful eye of cinematographer Bill
Pope, oh what eye candy she makes! Ironically, the heavy lifting
of that role is reserved for Seychelle Gabriel, who is outstanding as the
younger Sand, providing just about all of the movie's actual emotional
heft (kuddos as well to Johnny Simmons, who excels as the young Denny).
But it's really all about
the villains. Jackson can play to the back row with the best of them,
but he's never had a role quite like the utterly mad Octopus, who oddly
seems just as obsessed with eggs and chickens as immortality. He's
a loose cannon who could go off at any moment in any direction. Contrast
that with the icy cool Silken Floss who just thinks all this supervillain
stuff is a big ol' hoot, and besides, it's paying for her to work on her
PhD. I've seen some people call Johansson's performance wooden, but
they're missing the point: no matter what The Octopus does, none
of it phases her, and that's not only what makes them such a hilarious
team, it's what allows her to remain the only person he doesn't kill.
A little of Lombardi's colorfully named clones goes a long way, but you
can't fault the former 24 favorite for his enthusiasm in the role(s).
As you'd expect, The Spirit
looks great, a true comic book come to life. I can't speak to its'
fidelity to Eisner's source material, which was honestly unfamiliar to
me before the film project was announced. But if you're a fan, you
should probably check it out, and that goes double if you're a fan of campy
craziness, because trust me, some of what you'll see here, you ain't gonna
see anywhere else! But be warned, this is no Dark
Knight, Iron Man, or even Sin City for
that matter. Now, Hudson Hawk, on the other hand... |
