The highly stylized graphic novels of talented comic-book artist Frank Miller come to life in an equally stylized motion picture co-directed by Miller and Robert Rodriguez. Starkly photographed in black-and-white (with strategically placed daubs of color), Sin City resembles its printed-page inspiration more closely than perhaps any previous comic-book adaptation. Rodriguez and Miller take great pains to replicate specific panels from the graphic novels, casting actors who resemble the pen-and-ink characters, posing them in the same positions, and employing the same dramatic interplay of light and shadow created by Miller’s bold brushwork. The reliance on comic-book imagery makes for an impressionistic look so visually striking that the viewer either won’t know or won’t care that the interrelated, episodic story lines are pure pulp, distilled from decades of hard-boiled crime fiction and the noirish movie thrillers of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Bruce Willis plays a rugged, honest cop -- one of the few working in Sin City -- who rescues a little girl from a sadistic rapist (Nick Stahl) whose big brother (Rutger Hauer) happens to be a politically well-connected clergyman. Framed into prison, the cop languishes for years, and the girl grows up to be a stripper (Jessica Alba) working in a nightclub frequented by a hulking ex-con (an unrecognizable Mickey Rourke) wanted for murder. Meanwhile, a corrupt detective (Benicio Del Toro) who is harassing one of the club’s waitresses (Brittany Murphy) is eventually killed by her boyfriend (Clive Owen). The resulting chaos ignites a war between Sin City’s armed prostitutes (led by Rosario Dawson) and dishonest cops infuriated by the murder of their crooked comrade. The movie’s two-dimensional underpinnings are reinforced by the comic-strip nature of its violence: people sustain multiple gunshot wounds without dying, plunge from great heights without injury, and soar dozens of feet through the air after being hit by speeding cars. There’s nothing even remotely realistic about Sin City, but its atmospherics are so convincing that viewers will believe they’re always right in the middle of this violent, grotesque, fully realized world.