The Black Dahlia

Undoubtedly filmmaker Brian De Palma’s most ineffective effort in well over a decade, The Black Dahlia is a convoluted, poorly cast, and occasionally unwatchable would-be noir that’s lacking even in De Palma’s famously over-the-top sense of style. Based on James Ellroy’s eponymous novel, The Black Dahlia follows a pair of 1940s detectives – Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) – as they attempt to solve the mysterious and unusually brutal murder of an up-and-coming starlet named Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner). Riddled with problems right from the get-go, The Black Dahlia never quite comes off as anything other than an extremely misguided and surprisingly sloppy piece of work – a vibe that stems primarily from Josh Friedman’s muddled and flat-out baffling screenplay. There’s simply too much going on here to comfortably sustain a two-hour running time, and it seems clear that casual viewers will have a heck of a time trying to keep up with the barrage of plot twists and recurring characters. Hartnett’s stiff, thoroughly uncharismatic performance certainly doesn’t help matters, as the actor seems woefully out of his element here (particularly when placed alongside Eckhart, who sporadically infuses the proceedings with welcome bursts of energy). De Palma’s lamentable decision to reign in his wild directorial flourishes certainly doesn’t do the film any favors, and there’s little doubt that even the most ardent James Ellroy fan will be hard-pressed to find much here worth embracing.

** out of ****