Spirited try falls short

Frank Miller's 2008 thriller The Spirit overdoses on style but undernourishes on story. This is especially strange because Mr. Miller repeatedly emphasizes the importance of story in the generous number of special features on the one-disc edition of the standard DVD I recently watched.

I can see why Mr. Miller used an amped-up version of the visual style of Sin City (co-directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez) for this film, a combination film noir and heroic adventure, as the original comic book version of The Spirit was often very "out there" visually. And the visual style of the movie would have been fine if it also emulated the comic book's solid noir storytelling. But instead it took the sometimes crazy, goofy scenes from the comic book and made a whole movie out of them, mostly ignoring the subtle, lyrical flavor that was also a big part of Will Eisner's Spirit tales. And without a solid, engaging story with real emotional underpinnings, the visual style just came off as shrill.

If Mr. Miller (or someone else) wants to take a stab at another movie about Eisner's famous urban crimefighter, who looks sort of like a 1950's-era Clark Kent with a Lone Ranger mask, I'd advise them to relax a little and concentrate on telling a solid urban crime tale and not worry about constant action and jokes and sarcasm. Keep the stylized visuals, but just have them serve a story that actually makes you forget the visuals (at least a little) and worry about the characters.

The Spirit looks terrific on standard DVD, and- as previously mentioned- features a fair amount of special features on the single-disc version of the film I watched, including lots of interview material with director and famed comic book artist Frank Miller (including a commentary track). Even though I wasn't crazy about the movie, it was great to listen to Mr. Miller's stories and views about the comics industry and working in the movies.

Unless you're a huge fan of this film, I'd say this less expensive single-disc version of the movie will probably suit most people- even Frank Miller fans going back to his earliest comic book days- just fine. You get a lot of stuff in addition to the movie.

In the end, The Spirit is watchable and occasionally fun. But considering the pedigree of the source material, it could have been so much better.