Such a frustrating disappointment

Highly Overrated But Still Good

good back-story, and good acting

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Two policemen see their personal and professional lives fall apart in the wake of the "Black Dahlia" murder investigation. The Black Dahlia has an impressive and talented cast but it's a poor man's Sin City and a poor film Noir and what makes it a suprising failure is that it was directed by Brian De Palma (Scarface, Carlito's Way and Mission Impossible). The overall plot is also boring and the characters are so bland, overall a waste of time and talent. (0/10)

This is a fictional account of the investigation into the infamous case of the Black Dahlia, the murder of Hollywood wanna-be Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner). The film opens introducing two police officers and former boxers Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert (Josh Hartnett). Lee lives with the flirty and high maintenance Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson) well beyond his means unquestioned by his partner. They are assigned the case of Raymond "Junior" Nash, child rapist and murderer. When the Black Dahlia case comes up and becomes more high profile, Lee insists on taking it over and abandoning the Nash case...he is described as a "political animal." The investigation leads to the seedy underground of Hollywood films. This is where Bucky meets Hilary Swank who looks similar to the dead girl.The film felt slow. The "B" dialogue had no zip as the actors gave us what could be borderline raspberry performances. There is a mystery aspect that is explained in the last few minutes.This film was nominated for an Oscar "Best Achievement in Cinematography" and The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in four categories.Guide: F-word and nudity.

Brian DePalma assembled a good cast for this attempt to memorialize a famous Hollywood legend from the 1940s as a film noir. He had already proved with the magnificent "Chinatown" that he could realize the noir style as well as any contemporary director, so we are left to puzzle over what went wrong here. Notwithstanding an excessive amount of screen time devoted to a single boxing match, I still really liked the first half of this movie, which took its time developing the characters and story using classic noir tropes and compelling cinematography, all of which promised a splendid overall experience. Then came the second half, in which the sheer volume of subplots, plot twists, and added complications overwhelmed the actors' ability to fend off self-parody. It made me sad. It was as if DePalma had been halfway through making a good (if overlong) three-hour movie when he suddenly realized he had only a half hour of film left to finish it. (Did he ran out of money?) In the end, he tried to tie everything together with a series of brief, confusing, talky, and even ludicrous scenes that were a poor substitute for letting the audience think along with a protagonist while he pieced things together on his own.

A box office failure and a neo-noir film that confounded critics and fans alike, The Black Dahlia now appears to be a pic that has had its strengths ignored. As the clamour to kick Brian De Palma continues unabated to this day, and the point blank refusal to accept that Josh Hartnett is a better actor than the likes of Pearl Harbor suggests, it's a film worthy of a revisit by genre/style fans alike. Plot revolves around the infamous murder of one Elizabeth Short in Hollywood, 1947. An aspiring actress who was found butchered and her murder to this day remains unsolved. De Palma and his writer Josh Friedman adapt from noir legend James Ellroy's novel of the same name, the crux of the story is about two hot-to-trot detectives who get involved in the Short case, and pretty soon there is a can of worms that has been shaken and opened, and there's dizzying worms everywhere - we think? De Palma loves noir, he has dabbled with it for a long time, not all of it works, but often he delivers for like minded cinephiles. With expectation levels high and following in the slipstream of the critical darling that was L.A. Confidential, Black Dahlia never really had a hope of achieving its lofty ambitions, yet it's a tremendously realised picture from a noir stand point. Whilst it showcases the technical wizardry of the director. The charges of it being convoluted are fair, it's a spinning narrative, stories within stories, characterisations obtuse, but so was The Big Sleep! I know, I know, this is not fit to lace the boots of Hawks' genius movie, but tricksy narratives have always been a fundamental part of many a film noir, so why the distaste for this one? Especially since the period design, costuming, styling, photography and characterisations are so rich in detail? For instance Hartnett's detective is gumshoe nirvana, while Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank fatale the femme with mischievous glee. But of course De Palma then spells it out for the finale, explaining things, a sort of macabre wrap up for those that needed it. Either way he was never going to win, it's too complex, it didn't need spelling out, while Mr. De Palma we have to tell you that your characters have been too cold, we don't feel them?! Huh? This is noirville, a place frequented by bad people, idiots and hapless dreamers, of dupes and double crossers. Hell there's even a suggestion of necrophiliac tendencies in this, and that's before we even delve into the machinations of the two femme fatales, a family that's lacking Adams Family Values and coppers of dubious motives. Yeah, it's cold, and yes De Palma is guilty of trying to please all parties by covering all bases, but it's far from being a stinker. Haters of De Palma, Hartnett and complex noir narratives can knock two points off of my own personal rating, otherwise it's 7/10.