Review of The Black Dahlia (2006) by Mahmus — 25 Sep 2020

This movie is gorgeously shot and De Palma's direction gives it a stylish touch... but man is this film a mess.

Before the murder even happens, we spend like twenty minutes learning things about the main characters that never come into play again. It's a big waste of time and then, once the plot actually starts, we waste even more time with a terrible love triangle, if you can even call it that. It's kind of confusing. I think that's what it is but I might be wrong. Either way, it's not good. The plot is insanely convoluted and hard to follow, even by film noir standards.

The performances are all over the place. Josh Hartnett is more wooden than ever, Scarlett Johansson is completely unremarkable, Hilary Swank is horribly miscast as a femme fatale and I don't even know what Aaron Eckhart is doing, but at least he gets some unintentional laughs.

The best performance is Mia Kirshner as Elizabeth Short, the black dahlia herself. She appears in the form of old audition tapes and ufortunately she has vey little screentime.

Unless you just wanna watch some admittedly creative shots, I can't really recommend this one.