The Black Dahlia Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)September 27th, 2006
THE BLACK DAHLIA
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
The question that typically accompanies the latest Brian De Palma film is just exactly *which* Brian De Palma will show up for work.
Will it be the one who brought us those sublimely twisted horror flicks of the Seventies--"Carrie," "Sisters," and "The Fury" (see John Cassavettes explode before our very eyes!)? Will it be the director who continues to pay his dubious respects to (aka blatantly rip off) the great Alfred Hitchcock with films like "Obsession," "Dressed to Kill," and "Body Double"? Will it be the kinder, gentler (sic.) De Palma, the man behind Tony Montana's ferocious rise to power in "Scarface," Elliot Ness's dogged pursuit of Al Capone in "The Untouchables," or Sherman McCoy's rapid descent into hell in "Bonfire of the Vanities"?
Or will it be the new age, nouveaux-mannered De Palma, he of the misdirected "Femme Fatale" (2002), the misguided "Mission to Mars" (2000), and the mismanaged "Mission: Impossible" (1996)?
While "The Black Dahlia" certainly traverses territory De Palma's traversed before--a period piece set in 1940s Los Angeles; the film is based on the novel by James Ellroy, who also wrote "L.A. Confidential"-- it has few of the trappings, little of the moral outrage, indeed not much in the way of the "cinematechnics" one has come to expect from the 66-year-old's oeuvre. There's a tightly crafted set piece in a stairwell that brings to mind the spectacular Grand Central Station sequence in "The Untouchables" but otherwise this bleak, sluggish film could pass for something more suited to Curtis Hanson, James Foley, or even (at a pinch) Robert Altman.
The film is a stylish (and mostly even) dramatization of the events surrounding the murder of Hollywood wannabee Elizabeth Short, whose naked, bisected body was found in a vacant lot in South Central L.A. on January 15th, 1947. Her penchant for wearing mostly dark clothing garnered her the Black Dahlia nickname. Ellroy's take on this true-life and to this day unsolved tragedy is a dark, kaleidoscopic vision that goes way beyond simply--and fictitiously--fingering the murderer. Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart play L.A. homicide detectives assigned to the notorious case; Scarlett Johansson is Eckhart's dutiful wife; and Hilary Swank plays a swanky society gal with unfortunate ties to the dead girl.
Hartnett shows some real presence in "The Black Dahlia"; it's a juicy role for the young actor; noir would appear to agree with him. Eckhart, on the other hand, has a tendency to overact in some of his more emotional scenes but he's nevertheless well cast, "Lee" Blanchard to partner "Bucky" Bleichert, hell Fire to Hartnett's Ice man. Johansson is just soft-focus furniture--all angora wraps and champagne flutes and cigarette holders--and Swank vamps it up, naturally enough, as a femme fatale.
Plot-wise I was lost after two minutes and none the wiser after 120 (perhaps thanks as much to screenwriter Josh Friedman as De Palma's insouciance). Did I buy the "revelation"? Well, if amount of screen time being inversely proportional to culpability still carries weight in this town then yes I did! But it's a long, if pretty, haul getting there.
If De Palma's latest proves anything at all it's that it's still, apparently, no cakewalk to make a decent film--or dahlia--noir.
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David N. Butterworth
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
