The Black Dahlia

Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner
Running Time: 2h 01min

Brian De Palma has an uncanny ability to keep you in suspense. In some instances, like Mission: Impossible or Carlito's Way ,the suspense is so intense that you can hear a pin drop in the theatre. On the other hand, De Palma's suspense can be of the variety that keeps the viewer guessing, "When will this movie ever end? Or, more importantly, will it ever actually begin?" It is within this category that The Black Dahlia falls, alongside De Palma's other notable attempts, Mission to Mars and Femme Fatale.

Now it's easy to hate on De Palma, just as easy as it is to trumpet him for notable works like Scarface and The Untouchables (and my personal fave, Wise Guys). This is because when he fails on a film, he fails miserably. 100%, absolutely, "so bad it's good", win another Razzie it's that awful, miserable. In attempting to revitalize the noir genre for the umpteenth time, De Palma gives us a clouded, convoluted and at times contrived film that does make us yearn for the noir of yesteryear, only to forget this one that really missed its mark.

This film sucks all the life out of the excellent cast, or should i say, Josh Hartnett sucks the life out of his co-stars, while he's sucking so bad on screen. A quick glance at the worst films of the past decade will show Hartnett's ability to accurately choose the worst projects in Hollywood (Sin City aside). This is unfortunate, because on paper, The Black Dahlia looks intriguing. A script based on a James Ellroy novel and an unsolved real life murder in 1940s Hollywood. Sounds like L.A. Confidential all over again.

Sadly, it tries stylistically too hard to be reminiscent of the noir films De Palma is so fond of and neglects to update its genre for today's audience. So it feels like an old film transported ahead in time where today's audience is more sophisticated and savvy, leaving little to the imagination and drawing out plot points much longer than needed. The acting borders on melodrama, while the dialogue sounds classically inspired, but delivered like a grade 9 student reading Shakespeare for the first time, hitting all the wrong notes.

It is a movie searching for an identity, telling its tale using mixed up genre codes, but not in an attempt to create something new (which would have been nice) but in a way to disrupt the viewer's connection to the film and degrade decades of film history in the process. It jumps around like a poorly conceived student film yet manages to prod along at a pace so tedious that you'd wish it were a student short film.

Still, some actors manage to emerge unscathed (see Eckhart and Johansson in other films), while Hilary Swank reminds us just how miraculous it is that her name will forever be preceded by "two time academy award winner". Now there's a mystery that will forever go unsolved.

Grade: D