Rated: 15
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Theatrical Release: 15-09-2006
Synopsis: Based on the novel by James Ellroy, Brian De Palma's THE BLACK DAHLIA stars Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart as a pair of LAPD detectives assigned to the most notorious murder in Hollywood history. De Palma takes things slow, spending a good 20 minutes establishing the relationship between... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Mia Kirshner
Ellroy’s prose crawls into characters’ secret hearts and under the reader’s skin, but its foetid horrors become kitschy here, the script too streamlined and the lead performances too shallow to dredge the story’s depths.
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Top Critic
Gorgeously realised, gripping and doused in De Palma's familiar technical wizardry.
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The Black Dahlia is no L.A Confidential but it's still an engagingly stylish detective thriller with strong performances.
Brian De Palma's inventive filmmaking style turns this adaptation of the complex James Ellroy novel into a feast for the eyes, even if it's tough work keeping up with the story.
Almost every decision that was taken here seems to have been the wrong one, from the casting of the callow, pleasant-looking Josh Hartnett as the sexually repressed cop hero, to the mellow sepia tones overlaying night-time Los Angeles.
It only works in fits and starts and the grand climax is too Rocky Horror to be true, yet the heady redolence of a bygone era still proves seductive.
Top Critic
DePalma is like a magician who dazzles us with a trick only to show us, alas, it really was only a trick, and in the meantime he's stolen our watch.
Won't do much to dissuade the common rap against De Palma as a cold technician who takes projects just for the elaborate set pieces they provide him.
With skeletons flying out of the closet at every turn, this overplotted mess unfolds more like a dumb, daytime soap opera than a well-crafted crime thriller.
It's hard to tell what De Palma wanted to achieve with this film. Whatever it was, what ended up on the screen is a confused, ugly mess.
You have to wonder just how vibrant the film would have been during the Reagan or Clinton administration, when De Palma was in his prime.
A stellar cast of marquee names, coupled with an all-star crew, can't make this entry work.
... ends up being forgettable enough that someone else in the future may still be able to take another stab at the idea.
Filled with atmosphere and attitude to spare, "The Black Dahlia" is film noir at it's finest.
It meticulously resembles a 60 year-old Hollywood artifact, but with a contemporary cynicism.
The Black Dahlia is a good movie, a finely crafted, tasteful, polished, entertaining, and reasonably faithful adaptation of James Ellroy's novel. But it's not a great movie, and that third adjective above is one reason why.
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