The Black Dahlia (TBD) is a tribute of sorts to the film noir flicks prevalent during its 1940's setting. Visually the film is quite stunning. De Palma and crew have done an excellent job creating the look of the period. This combined with creative camera work helps shape numerous memorable and inviting images. The jazzy musical score is also a great complement to the frequently dark, unsettling visuals.
But all of this glitz is overshadowed by the fact that TBD lacks any sort of discernible plot or character development. It starts feeling extremely rushed right out of the gate, cutting from scene to scene at break-neck speed, with only a few quick snippets of voice over from Bleichert (Josh Harnett) to try and guide us through the overload of seemingly random content. The direction and pacing is never really clear or coherent. My guess is that Brian De Palma had an ambitious idea here, but just couldn't seem to make it click within the film's running time and tried to compensate by cramming in as much content as possible at the expense of appropriate pacing.
The rest of the cast brings little to the mix. Aaron Eckhart plays Hartnett's partner, Lee Blanchard. The twosome shares a home with a female acquaintance of Lee's named Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson), whom both have a competing attraction to. The film attempts to utilize this love triangle dynamic as a parallel to the murder, with Lee becoming obsessed with the Dahlia case and turning abusive and unstable. The problem is that we are not given enough insight into either of these characters to care about them. We are just sort of expected to accept that they are troubled without being told why. Aside from looks Scarlett Johansson has no endearing quality in this film either. Her delivery comes across as unenthusiastic and underwhelming. Like Eckart, her character is one dimensional and fails to leave a lasting impression on us.
Once the Black Dahlia murder comes into play, the film switches gears and just sort of coasts along through the mid section, not really sure of what to do with itself. The murder investigation takes a back seat to the incoherent assortment of domestic problems between Bleichert, Lee, and Kay. After a series of interrogations and meeting which don't seem to lead anywhere, Bleichert abruptly pieces bits of the mystery together and rushes from local to local to pursue his suspects. I was continually left scratching my head over what he'd figured out and how he'd gotten there. And while the film tries to give us a conclusion to the chase, it again brings us no closer to interpreting the assortment of events leading up to it in any sort of coherent way. The film ends rather anti-climatically as well, but by that time I was just glad to be done with it.
But all of this glitz is overshadowed by the fact that TBD lacks any sort of discernible plot or character development. It starts feeling extremely rushed right out of the gate, cutting from scene to scene at break-neck speed, with only a few quick snippets of voice over from Bleichert (Josh Harnett) to try and guide us through the overload of seemingly random content. The direction and pacing is never really clear or coherent. My guess is that Brian De Palma had an ambitious idea here, but just couldn't seem to make it click within the film's running time and tried to compensate by cramming in as much content as possible at the expense of appropriate pacing.
The rest of the cast brings little to the mix. Aaron Eckhart plays Hartnett's partner, Lee Blanchard. The twosome shares a home with a female acquaintance of Lee's named Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson), whom both have a competing attraction to. The film attempts to utilize this love triangle dynamic as a parallel to the murder, with Lee becoming obsessed with the Dahlia case and turning abusive and unstable. The problem is that we are not given enough insight into either of these characters to care about them. We are just sort of expected to accept that they are troubled without being told why. Aside from looks Scarlett Johansson has no endearing quality in this film either. Her delivery comes across as unenthusiastic and underwhelming. Like Eckart, her character is one dimensional and fails to leave a lasting impression on us.
Once the Black Dahlia murder comes into play, the film switches gears and just sort of coasts along through the mid section, not really sure of what to do with itself. The murder investigation takes a back seat to the incoherent assortment of domestic problems between Bleichert, Lee, and Kay. After a series of interrogations and meeting which don't seem to lead anywhere, Bleichert abruptly pieces bits of the mystery together and rushes from local to local to pursue his suspects. I was continually left scratching my head over what he'd figured out and how he'd gotten there. And while the film tries to give us a conclusion to the chase, it again brings us no closer to interpreting the assortment of events leading up to it in any sort of coherent way. The film ends rather anti-climatically as well, but by that time I was just glad to be done with it.