Frank Miller wrote two new stories for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For that never existed on the page. The film’s spine comes from A Dame to Kill For, the second book in his Sin City series, but “The Long Bad Night” and “Nancy’s Last Dance” were built for the screen alone. That is the promise of the movie: a return to Basin City with material nobody had read.
Trailer, via LionsgateFilmsUK.
Eva Green Takes the Role Jolie Almost Had
The 2014 film is an anthology, and the tagline sells it plainly: “Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything…” Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller direct, Miller writes the script, and the runtime is 102 minutes.
The casting is where the movie earns its keep. Eva Green plays Ava, the role that once had Angelina Jolie attached in rumor. Rosario Dawson said Rodriguez delayed production around Jolie’s pregnancy, and Salma Hayek, Rose McGowan and Rachel Weisz were floated over the years before Green was announced on January 29, 2013.
Josh Brolin takes over as Dwight. Joseph Gordon-Levitt joins as Johnny, a new character described as “a cocky gambler who disguises a darker mission to destroy his most foul enemy at his best game.”
Manute, Miho and the Recast Chairs
The returning cast is deep: Mickey Rourke as Marv, Jessica Alba as Nancy, Rosario Dawson as Gail, Jaime King as Goldie and Wendy, Powers Boothe as Senator Roark in his final film role, and Bruce Willis as Hartigan.
Two roles changed hands for reasons outside the movie. Devon Aoki did not come back as Miho because of her second pregnancy, confirmed October 29, 2012, and Jamie Chung stepped in. Dennis Haysbert replaced Michael Clarke Duncan as Manute after Duncan died before production began, announced December 5, 2012.
Ray Liotta plays Joey Canelli, a married businessman cheating on his wife. Juno Temple plays Sally, his mistress from Old Town. Christopher Meloni plays Mort, one of the few honest cops in Basin City.
The Box Office Math
The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre on August 19, 2014, and The Weinstein Company released it August 22 in 2D, 3D and RealD 3D. It grossed $39.4 million against a $65 million production budget. Reviews came back mixed.
That gap is the whole story of this movie, and it is not a mystery. A Dame to Kill For is a sequel to a 2005 film, sold on a comic book’s second volume rather than its first, in a format — the anthology — that asks an audience to hold four stories at once.
What the Original Stories Buy
The original stories are the reason to watch. “The Long Bad Night” gives Gordon-Levitt a character with no comic-book baggage, and Johnny’s con is the cleanest arc in the film. “Nancy’s Last Dance” was written for the screen, one of two stories Miller created exclusively for the movie.
Green’s Ava is the other draw. The role cycled through Jolie, Hayek, McGowan and Weisz before landing on her, and she plays the kind of woman the tagline warns about.
The problem is the anthology structure itself. Four stories at 102 minutes means none of them breathe. The smaller plot pulled from “Just Another Saturday Night,” collected in Booze, Broads, & Bullets, gets the least room of all.
This is a film made by people who love the source and assume you already do.
A Dame to Kill For is not a disaster. It is a movie that arrived late and asked too much. The 2005 Sin City was a formal shock; the same trick reads as repetition this time, and the box office numbers landed alongside mixed reviews.
The recasting is handled as well as it could be. Haysbert stepping in for Duncan is a hard chair to fill, and Chung replacing Aoki is a scheduling fact, not a creative choice. Neither sinks the film.
What sinks it is scale. Four stories, 102 minutes, and a $65 million budget that demanded a hit. The original stories — “The Long Bad Night” and “Nancy’s Last Dance” — are the parts worth defending, and they are the parts Miller wrote fresh.
Mixed reviews were the fair outcome. This is a competent, occasionally sharp return to Basin City that never justifies its own existence beyond the pleasure of being back.
KEY FACTS
- Release: August 22, 2014 (premiere August 19, 2014, TCL Chinese Theatre)
- Runtime: 102 minutes
- Budget: $65 million
- Gross: $39.4 million
- TMDB audience score: 6.4/10 (4,267 votes)
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