The Black Dahlia Reviews

I'm sorry, but this film is really impressive. Not only do I like the cinematography, but the story left me curious to know more. It's one of those films that require multiple viewings, so I'm not exactly 100% on the 8/10. The scenes actually connect well with one another, but that is left with the audience. Director Brian DePalma has a very interesting artistic style, in my opinion. It leaves me to discover more about his work in the future.

Back in the 70's and 80's, Brian de Palma was a very good director but, unfortunately, it has been a while since he has done anything really impressive. However, when I had heard about this project, I had some high hopes. Indeed, the story, the time period seemed to be taylor-made for De Palma and maybe he would eventually make an impressive come-back. However, the reception was rather poor and, eventually, I had to admit the whole thing was rather disappointing. It is a real shame since all the ingredients were present : a top director, a very nice cast (Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner) and a great story. So, what went wrong ? Above all, I thought the whole thing was just really poorly written which was rather surprising when you think that the material seemed rather fascinating. The problem is that De Palma didn't care much about the plot and just wanted to create a nice mood and he did succeed. So, it did look good but the story was a mess and, as a result, the whole thing was rather boring to watch. To conclude, it could have been great but, eventually, it is just plain average and not really worth a look, even if you are a big fan of De Palma's work.

Based on James Ellroy’s book of the same name.
1940s. Los Angeles. Two cops, Bleichert aka Mr Ice (Hartnett) and Blanchard aka Mr Fire (Eckhart) investigate the brutal murder of a would-be actress, Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirschner).

Unfortunately this film just didn’t do anything right – except the the setting and costumes which were rather fine.

Being badly directed is its weakest point. Brian De Palma had all the good aspects of a great film: detectives, murder, guns, boxing match, violence, money, and women.
Then the script just went all over the place, everything was quite confusing and simply not well explained. The lack of factual detail doesn’t help and muddled the story further. The actors have difficulty mastering the year’s style and give uneasy and uncomfortable performances, even Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank. Having virtually no character development doesn’t help either.
The result was an imitation Film Noir.
Advertised as a crime / drama / thriller / mystery movie, it is *also* a comedy.

This is just another bad film… that bores and disappoints the viewer.

although the setting (time, costumes, actors) was promising, I got lost somewhere in the middle.
The plot is somehow confusing, all the time people show their dark side and tell some flashback story of the past.
That way, everybody is connected to everyone, and in the end, I just didn't care anymore.