Review of Black Dahlia (2006) by Jack P — 01 Jan 2012

A surprising misstep here by the usually solid Brian De Palma, in what has to go down as one of the adaptation disappointments in recent memory - taking James Ellroy's thrilling dramatisation of the real life, fascinating murder of Elisabeth Short, and hashing it up in numerous ways by and large. The one thing De Palma nails is production design - it looks sumptuously 1940's, really makes the decade look sexier than it likely was. The rest? A mess, to be honest. The story is just all over the place, taking a small age to get going and then it fudges the central characterisation of Bucky, Blanchard and Kay that should have been the backbone - a myriad of threads never coming together properly leading to a muddled denoument that by then I doubt you'll care much about. Plus, crucially, anyone paying attention will have guessed the twists or moments seeded throughout.

Doesn't help either the acting is either stilted or OTT. Josh Hartnett isn't bad as our Chandler-esque lead, he's just as bland as usual - while Aaron Eckhart is saddled with a character who's descent into madness isn't properly developed, leaving him little. Scarlett Johannsen may look the part, but she's awfully miscast as sexpot Kay, as indeed is Hilary Swank (who's accent too is all over the shop) - though she's better written. Least said about Fiona Shaw's terrifying overacting too, the better. Only Mia Kirshner comes out of this with a bit of grace as the central victim - imbuing her moments with a quiet tragedy. Also... this at times almost slipped into parody, a hilariously jazzy film noir soundtrack that edges close to spoof not helping.

So... a shame. There's a much better Ellroy adap of this waiting to be made.