The Black Dahlia

[DotTheEyes]

Watch the trailer...

Seems excellent. In fact, it could be one of the year's best movies. It's based on a fascinating, superlative novel by James Ellroy. Director Brian De Palma is a master director of suspense, as The Untouchables, Scarface, and Mission: Impossible proved. And this has a very strong cast, including Scarlett Johansson and the underrated Josh Hartnett.

I'm seeing it opening night and will post a review afterwards.

 

[DotTheEyes]

Is Brian De Palma, of The Untouchables, Scarface, and Mission: Impossible fame, still capable of directing a good film? I'm beginning to wonder. His new film, based on author James Ellroy's celebrated novel, is overflowing with psychosexual tension, steeped in macho seediness, and drowning in gory violence, each an ingredient De Palma used to spin gold from, but the final result is more campy melodrama than intense murder mystery.

The cast was either suffering through a mutual off day or De Palma led them astray (I'm learning toward the latter), because this film has only one truly fine performance to its name: Mia Kirshner's. She portrays aspiring starlet Elizabeth Short, whose brutal murder is part of the film's convoluted plot (though not the true focal point, as the advertising suggests), and her few brief scenes are the only ones with emotional weight. The lead actors' performances range from mediocre to awful, with Josh Hartnett failing to capture our attention (his mellow cool is all wrong for this role), Scarlett Johansson seeming lost (and delivering the first bad performance of her career thus far), and Hilary Swank going so far over-the-top as to defy belief.

De Palma doesn't do much better. His attempts to heat the proceedings up by always moving the camera and using old-fashioned scene-to-scene transitions are unimpressive and he does almost nothing to help the audience comprehend Josh Friedman's convoluted, laborious screenplay.

Overall, this could have been a significant Academy Award contender with its handsome pedigree and A-list cast. The final result, however, will elicit more unintentional laughs and booing than kudos.

What a disappointment!

 

[Pandora]

It sounded so good too.

 

[DotTheEyes]

It also annoyed me how a lot of the movie didn't even deal with Elizabeth Short's murder for the whole running time. It concentrated more on corruption in '40s Los Angeles (material covered with much more grace and intelligence in L.A. Confidential ten years ago).

 

[nyte-angel82]

Hmm. this seems to be a very interesting movie from the trailer.. but it could just end up being pure hype. Time will tell.

 

[HillBillyChick]

A group of my friends went to see this the other night. They did not even stay for the whole thing. They had to work the next day and were getting really sleepy. That says a lot right there, huh?

 

[CandyRain]

I'm watching it right now. So far, the cinematography seems low budget but I'm going to give it at least 15 minutes.

 

[CandyRain]

Ok, 8 minutes.

 

[DotTheEyes]

I didn't mind the cinematography too much. It was too flashy, but it kept me from falling asleep. The production design, however, was mediocre. The seemingly-cardboard sets weren't convincing AT ALL.