The Spirit
Gabriel Macht is on swashbuckling form in The Spirit
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Friday, 02, Jan 2009 10:44
Directed by Frank Miller, out January 1st at the cinema, starring Gabriel Macht, Samuel L Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Paz Vega, Sarah Paulson, 103 mins.
In a nutshell.
Uber-bizarre yet noble superheroics.
What's it all about?
A big city cop is gunned down only to be reborn as the two-fisted crime-fighting babe magnet called the Spirit, who faces off against the evil schemes of unhinged villain the Octopus as well as a plethora of curvy femme fatales.
The film is written and directed by the creator of Sin City and 300, former comic-book writer/artist Frank Miller, and is based on the seminal works of comic-book artist and newspaper strip cartoonist Will Eisner, who sadly passed away last year.
Eisner, whose masterpieces of pathos and character such as the Spirit and A Contract With God, conceived the graphic novel format that spawned Miller's groundbreaking rendition of Batman in The Dark Knight Returns, created the Spirit character in 1940 following on from Bob Kane's Batman in 1939 and Siegel and Shuster's Superman the year before that.
The Spirit initially baffled Eisner's editor who said when he looked at the character's distinctly non-superhero outfit: "Where'='s his costume?"
In reply, Eisner said: "Well, he's got a hat, he's got a coat and he's got a tie."
His editor frowned and said: "Yeah, but where's his mask?"
With a shrug, Eisner painted a mask onto the Spirit and the legend began.
Fast forward to the present day and Frank Miller is the writer/director behind the big screen version of the Spirit, which takes the auteur's film noir-on-green-screen motifs to Eisner's creation.
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Who's in it?
Samuel L Jackson revels in his scenery-chewing star turn as the deranged baddie of the piece and there's lots of eye candy in the fine forms of Eva Mendes and Paz Vega as Sand Saref and Plaster Of Paris, respectively.
The titular hero is portrayed by 35-year-old Gabriel Macht, whose performance delicately treads the fine line between film noir homage and out-and-out parody.
Director Frank Miller also puts in an appearance as one of the hard-bitten cops who inhabit the film's setting, the New York-inspired Central City.
As an example.
"I'm on my way!" - states the Spirit as he prepares to fight crime while channelling a hefty chunk of Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy.
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
I can't see this oddball comic-book flick troubling the Oscars except for the breathtaking visuals that take the heightened reality of 300 and Sin City to the Nth degree.
What the others say
"It's a super-stylish superhero flick in Miller's trademark style." - Unlimited
"Judging by the footage screened to Empire recently, the tone is best described as 'irreverent'." - Empire
So is it any good?
Writer/director Miller gave Samuel L Jackson carte blanche to portray the Spirit's arch foe, the Octopus, in as OTT and menacing a fashion as possible.
In return Jackson doesn't disappoint as the gun-toting, egg-hating pompous villain with delusions of godhood, however, it's Miller's insistence that Gabriel Macht play the heroic title character as an urban Zorro that gives the film its heart and soul.
Virtual newcomer Macht's Spirit is an amalgam of Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart in all those old Frank Capra movies combining charm, nobility and a nice line in clumsiness that evokes the original comic-strip version.
And it's these qualities that help propel him and the audience through Miller's dazzling and dizzying noir wonderland that comes across as if a sweat-soaked fever dream provided the basis for a love letter to the tenement blocks and back alleys of 40s New York City.
Much has been made of the lush ladies who, by turn, seduce, betray and fall for the Spirit. There's Scarlett Johansson's tightly-wound Silken Floss who looks good but is ultimately dull, similar to the actress herself.
Eva Mendes is the feisty Sand Saref, the Spirit's first love, who burns up the screen and captures both Miller and Eisner's affection for powerful female characters with seriously dangerous curves.
Beautiful Paz Vega camps it up as would-be Spirit-slayer Plaster Of Paris and Jaime King writhes and teases as a CGI'd angel of death with her own designs on our hero.
On his previous big screen venture Sin City, Miller went for bone-crunching violence, one of his trademarks. This penchant pops up in the Spirit but is turned on its head, dipping into Chuck Jones cartoon territory, with utterly ludicrous dust-ups involving toilet bowls and manhole covers.
There are also lashings of graphic novel-inspired visual cleverness and some strange moments that include a talking foot and a sequence using Nazi symbols and the death of a fluffy cat, which could be seen as over-indulgence on Miller's part or as a nod to the more outré aspects of later Spirit pieces.
The overall feeling although is one of deep love for the source material and the era that spawned it. Yes, at times there's the tropes that permeated Sin City with mentions of prostitution and corruption at all levels.
Often, we're in the shimmering dreamscape of ultra-violence and sensual overload that characterised 300 but first and foremost we've also been invited to immerse ourselves in Frank Miller's affectionate rendition of Will Eisner's Spirit. He's done you proud, Will!
10/10
Lee Davis