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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.
3/10
