The Black Dahlia

By: Art

Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Brian De Palma makes great horror films, but sadly The Black Dahlia wasn’t meant to be one. An adaptation of James Ellroy's novel based on a real life murder case, it had all the great ingredients for a Noir pastiche but fails in that one crucial element - the script.

Elizabeth (Mia Kirshner) is a struggling actress known as the Black Dahlia, who is murdered. In 1930s Old Hollywood, the story follows Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert, played by a suitably brooding Josh Harnett - who makes Heathcliff look a happy go lucky guy - as he and his partner Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) investigate the murder.

For those who didn’t have to sit through three years of cinema studies or Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, the basic elements required for a noir are: barely there lighting (the more silhouettes standing beneath the strips of light through Venetian blinds the better!), a protagonist with a dark past (usually a detective that doesn’t play by the rules), a good woman in trouble, and a temptress, aka the femme fatale. Whack in some protagonist voice over, a couple of flashbacks and a shoot out scene and you’ve got yourself a movie! 

A much superior modern version of the genre is LA Confidential, also based on a James Ellroy book. However, the script in Dahlia written by Josh Friedman (who also wrote War of the Worlds, need I say more?) really lets the film down and by the end of the picture it’s almost a parody of a noir, with too many different plot elements that simply don’t collate.

De Palma evokes the Old Hollywood element well with some very striking cinematography created by Vilmos Zsigmond and a strong performance from Harnett (yes, really!). Unfortunately, the rest of the cast seem a little uncomfortable. The usually solid Scarlett Johansson plays Kay Lake, the wife of Blanchard, reasonably well, but with none of her usual vigour. As a screen siren, she seems a little lost. I would much rather have seen her cast as Madeline Linscott, the femme fatale (Hilary Swank - who lets face it, plays a man and a female boxer well, but looks a bit wrong in a tight dress). But maybe Brian De Palma thought the male viewing world wasn’t quite up to a Scarlett Johansson lesbian scene just yet. Had he thought otherwise, it would have probably been the most downloaded video on the internet since Paris Hilton’s.

In short, only for De Palma fans, otherwise you might feel a bit like Carrie.

Verbatim:
Officer Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert: Mr. Fire versus Mr. Ice. For everything people were making it out to be, you'd think it was our first fight. It wasn't. And it wouldn't be our last.

In a word: Messy