THE BLACK DAHLIA

Director: Brian De Palma

Stars: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner

Year: 2006

Rating: R

Let me cut to the chase right off by saying this film is a huge mess. Adapted from the novel by James Ellroy (the same writer behind L.A. Confidential), The Black Dahlia is a fictionalized account of the infamous "Black Dahlia" murder case of the 1940's, where Hollywood starlet and actress wannabe Elizabeth Short (played here, in flashback, by Mia Kirshner) was brutally murdered, her body severed in half at the waist and mouth cut open from ear to ear to resemble a ghastly, Joker-like death mask.

The film opens with two L.A. cops who also happen to be good buddies, Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart). We're given a fairly detailed history of the two men, as both friends and cops, to the point where its understood that both men are very close friends who definitely have respect for the law; no bad cops on the take, here. Blanchard is married to a very hot blonde named Kay, whom Bleichert is obviously attracted to, but the three are all close and do things together as friends, and you know it would never even be in Bucky to cross that line with his partner's woman.

Then comes the Black Dahlia case, and suddenly each of their lives is thrown into a tailspin. Bucky and Lee, now detectives, both become obsessed with solving the murder and bringing Elizabeth Short's killer - Lee to the extent of it taking over his life, as he becomes addicted to prescription drugs he needs to even have a shot at getting any sleep. But it's Bucky who seems to make some headway, at last, when he meets one of the "Dahlia wannabes" (women who dress up like the Black Dahlia), named Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), who leads Bucky down a path the just might be strewn with landmines, as he tries to solve the most horrific, heinous murder in Los Angeles' history.

I've always been fascinated by the Black Dahlia case - especially the fact that Elizabeth Short's killer was never caught - and did not know, when I sat down to watch this film, that this was a fictionalized account of the murder in which, per Ellroy's storyline, a solution to the case is reached. Problem is, the solution seems a long time in coming ... and meanwhile, the overacting, silly noir-style lighting (or lack of it), and hopeless miscasting of Hartnett (and especially Swank as femme fatale Madeleine) make the film almost unbearable to watch. Everything about this movie is over-the-top, from the performances to the score to the melodramatic story, and if De Palma was going for the look and feel of true 1940's melodrama in Hollywood's hey-day, what he created instead was a cheap imitation bordering on parody. Even flashback scenes of Elizabeth Short and some of the things she had to do to get by in Hollywood come off as nothing more than cheap attempts at titillation more than a revelation of Short's victimization by those out to use her. I had high hopes for this film, wanted so badly to like this film, and in the end simply couldn't wait for it to end ... rolling my eyes most of the way. *1/2 - Get Reel-Reel Mediocre