Review of The Black Dahlia (2006) by Spangle — 26 May 2016
The Black Dahlia is a decidedly mediocre film. Featuring impeccable cinematography and a lush and sexy style, The Black Dahlia is everything you can want from a neo-noir film set in 1940's Los Angeles from a visual standpoint.
Beyond that, however, The Black Dahlia falls apart. Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, and Hilary Swank, all turn in mediocre performances. Aaron Eckhart is okay though. The story makes no sense and is poorly told.
The end reveal of what happened throughout is scattershot at best and demonstrates just how little sense the preceding hour and a half made. Honestly, this film makes literally no sense from a plot standpoint and it seems as if Brian De Palma just took pieces of the novel, threw them at the screen, and hoped they would work.
If the film was longer, maybe it would make sense. However, it is simply too overstuffed for the two hour runtime. Also featuring De Palma's trademark penchant for violence and sexism, the film is not good enough to justify the violence or the horrendous treatment of women in the film.
While I would stop short of calling it an overall bad film due to the great visuals, the plot is meandering, nonsensical, and incoherent.
This review of The Black Dahlia (2006) was written by Spangle on 26 May 2016.
The Black Dahlia has generally received mixed reviews.
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