A generally riveting thriller
Written: Sep 17 '06
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Atmospheric story; generally excellent performances
Cons: An over-the-top sex scene; a scenery-chewing Fiona Shaw
The Bottom Line: Well-done (albeit fictionalized) take on a legendary Hollywood murder
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| SKAD13's Full Review: The Black Dahlia |
Director Brian DePalma (Scarface) has never been known for subtlety. So you can imagine the opportunities that The Black Dahlia -- based on an actual Hollywood murder -- offers DePalma to go over the top. But if you can tolerate the movie's excesses, it's a generally satisfying film-noir thriller.
The true story concerns Elizabeth Short (by Mia Kirshner, light-years removed from her happy high-schooler in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). Short was a wanna-be starlet who was found gruesomely murdered in a seedy part of Los Angeles in 1947. Her mouth had been sliced from ear to ear, and her body cut in half and drained.
The Short murder case was never officially solved, turning it into the stuff of Hollywood mystery and legend. DePalma's film is based on a novel about the murder written by L.A. Confidential's James Ellroy.
In Ellroy's version of the story, the Short case is assigned to two partnered L.A. cops, Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and "Bucky" Bleichart (Josh Hartnett). Blanchard becomes obsessed with (and eventually unhinged by) the case, much to the consternation of both his partner and Blanchard's lover Kay (a Lana Turner-like Scarlett Johansson). As with his previous work, Ellroy uses real-life crime to expose the ugly underbelly of Hollywood.
As with the recent movie Hollywoodland -- which hedged its bets by adding a made-up story to its real-life murder setting -- one is tempted to say that the movie's love triangle trivializes the true murder story. But since countless parties have mulled over and theorized about the Short murder in the past six decades, it's inevitable that Hollywood would do the same. And the Ellroy/DePalma version is exceptionally gripping and has mostly excellent performers (including a sultry Hilary Swank, and an eye-popping cameo by singer k.d. laing).
But a few caveats are in order. As befits its subject matter, the movie pulls no punches about its grisly subject matter, with lurid sex and graphic violence. And in a couple of instances, DePalma threatens to turn the movie into high camp. One is a sex scene in which Bucky and Kay get so lust-stricken that they consummate their passion atop a dinner table. (Does this kind of stuff happen very often outside of movies?) The other is the movie's only casting debit: Fiona Shaw as as a guilt-ridden matriarch whose tics and affectations suggest she was bitten by a rabid dog at some point.
But overall, The Black Dahlia is a fascinating cautionary tale about the underside of show business. If anyone still believes that Hollywood is the glamour capital of the world, Ellroy's novels and DePalma's filmography (including Blow-Out and now this movie) should be enough to cure such delusions.
The Black Dahlia is rated R for adult language, graphic violence and imagery, and strong sexual content.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
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Epinions.com ID:
SKAD13
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Steven Bailey
Location: Jacksonville Beach, Florida
Reviews written: 689
Trusted by: 88 members
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I'm # 55, but I try harder.
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