by J A Wright

Created on: September 12, 2009

Based on a comic superhero, rather like Batman and Spiderman, The Spirit is another crime fighter brought to the big screen, the big difference is the style, this film is beautifully shot film noir and it looks incredible. The shadows are deep and long, the emphasis on shapes and features and the photographic work is posed and captivating.

The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is an chiselled and dynamic ex cop, shot in the line of duty and mysteriously resurrected by The Octopus who is intent on finding eternal life. In his new guise as the unkillable hero, The Spirit must maintain the ever present dual role as he romances his widow who is strangely none the wiser. The trusty mask, brief and barely concealing as it is must be far more a powerful tool of disguise than I realised. I must get one of those!

The damsels in distress and the nemesis characters in some cases are all hourglass curves and smouldering glances over horn rimmed spectacles, their intention, good or bad, easily displayed on flawless, finely made up faces.

Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) is the curiously named eternal love of Danny/The Spirit, his teenage crush and his never forgotten true love who turned from the world of justice when she suffered loss at the hands of a criminal in her youth. Now she hankers after diamonds and riches and liaises with whoever bids at the best price, which puts her right in the path of The Spirit and his crime fighting associates.

The Octopus (Samuel L Jackson) is the loony arch enemy, desperate to capture the hero and with more in common than The Spirit would care to admit. He has a passion for the dramatic, which brings some of the most amazing visual imagery and some of the most ridiculous, especially in an Oriental themed scene with a touch too much of the rising sun imagery going on.

Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson) is The Octopus' right hand woman. A cool and disaffected woman with intentions, unruffled by her loony boss and unmelted by the attentions of the Casanova effect of The Spirit. She exudes boredom and superiority and leaves each scene as she arrived, with a perfectly lipsticked mouth full of snappy quips and her exquisite wardrobe untouched by the endless array of bullets.

Ellen Dolan (Sarah Paulson) is the ever faithful widow, a doctor who works on The Spirit, not knowing his true identity but still deeply in love and yet disgusted by the devastating effect he has on women and they on him. Endlessly patching up the hero until his own healing powers kick in but unable to patch her own heart, she has the potential to become something more of a threat.

The story line is a little patchy and for those of us with little previous knowledge of the character the historical storyline is described in short clips of memories, experienced mostly by The Spirit himself before his death. This brings us up to speed but that takes some time. Then there are the in jokes, understood only by those who followed the original graphic stories. Some chuckles in the audience were lost on me but many little one liners are winners with everyone including 'He's deader than Star Trek'. An amusing 'nerd' reference which will probably very soon be inaccurate again.

One mystery which remains with me is the edgy film noir style shooting with 1940's America style sets and costumes, even lending phrases, hairstyles and make up of the day yet with modern gadgets like mobile phones and laptop computers. Even, at one stage, an old style classic black telephone, used much like a mobile, with no cord or base unit.... evidently a stretch of the imagination needed in some places more than others.

Visually stunning but slightly incomprehensible storyline yet still worth a watch.

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