The Black Dahlia (2006)
Directed by Brian De Palma
In 1940s Los Angeles, two former boxers-turned-cops must grapple with corruption, narcissism, stag films and family madness as they pursue the killer of an aspiring young actress.
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What critics compared The Black Dahlia to
Jemima Rooper ("Kinky Boots") and Rose McGowan ("Scream," "Monkeybone") are better as Short's acquaintances and Rachel Miner ("Bully") is reminiscent of "Doubt's" precocious little sister.
Based on the novel by James Ellroy ("The Black Dahlia," "Street Kings"), adapted for the screen by Brian Helgeland ("The Postman," "Mystic River"), and co-adapted and directed by Curtis Hanson ("8 Mile," "Wonder Boys"), this 1997 combination police procedural and underworld exposé has already stood the test of time.
Based on a novel by James Ellroy, it comes from the same cycle of books as L.A. Confidential, and comparisons between the two films will be inevitable, and unfavorable.
Haunted film noir vultures, both, but while the writer had to squeeze an unwieldy line like "This is the City of Angels and you haven't got any wings" out of a character's mouth in L.A. Confidential, the filmmaker effortlessly projected all of the genre onto his heroine in Femme Fatale's first minute.
But when compared to the ultimately status quo L.A. Confidential or even The Untouchables, an absolutely acidic aftertaste remains in the avoidance of a satisfactory catharsis.
Curtis Hanson produced a masterpiece from Ellroy's similarly themed L.A. Confidential, but where it used hints and suggestions, The Black Dahlia sledgehammers us into oblivion.
De Palma, screenwriter Josh Friedman, the actors, and the visual and sound teams have taken what is obviously a complex and probably convoluted novel (by L.A. Confidential's James Ellroy) and have gutted the thing, strewing its bits and organs and springs right off the screen and into our laps.
Brian De Palma already made this ambivalence poetic in The Black Dahlia — especially the memorable sequence where the audition of tragic Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirschner) as Scarlett O’Hara distilled her all-American drive and pathos.
Writer/director Woody Allen ("Match Point," "Cassandra's Dream") has assembled one of his most unusual casts for his latest, European set film and his combination of recent favorite (Scarlett Johansson, "Scoop," "The Black Dahlia"), new discovery (Rebecca Hall, "Starter for 10," "The Prestige") and local blood (Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men" and (Penélope Cruz, "Volver") sizzles and sparks.
Johansson gives perhaps her weakest performance in a string of unmemorable ones (The Black Dahlia, The Prestige, The Other Boleyn Girl), but the fault is largely Allen's.
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James Ellroy�s The Black Dahlia also provided a conclusion later to be turned into an over-the-top and near unwatchable tale of gumshoe obsession by Brian DePalma.
And in the five years since "Panic Room" he came closest to committing to "The Black Dahlia," another real life unsolved murder mystery.