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Tuesday, 03 October 2006 18:08 |
| | Meg Hale |
Because the latest film version of the true Hollywood murder mystery, "The Black Dahlia" is so horribly written, convoluted and slow, I had to look up the actual story of the murder and list of suspected killers.
The disappointing part is that the real story is so much more fascinating and mysterious than the movie.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy about the 1947 murder of Hollywood hopeful, Elizabeth Short. Shortës body was found by the side of the road, beaten, cut in half, disemboweled, with her mouth sliced open from ear to ear. While everyone from Gene Autrey to Orson
Welles was suspected to have been involved in this crime, the killer was never discovered.
Most of the issues I have with the plot of this movie I can blame on Ellroy, while the problems I have with the way the film was done can be blamed on director Brian de Palma ("Scarface").
For
Ellroyës part, I found it particularly offensive for him to take the
incredibly brutal murder of a young woman and add tacky little snippits
to the plot because he didnët feel the real story was interesting
enough by itself. A whole additional plot-line about how Short was
involved in a lesbian pornography film and and then hired as a
prostitute was added to the film. If I am ever violently murdered, do
not let James Ellroy have the rights to my story.
I cannot fathom
what the tale of this murder lacked that Ellroy felt he had to fill in.
There is tons and tons of sub-plot to "The Black Dahlia" without the
extra frill. The entire first half-hour is mainly about boxing. No,
seriously ÇƒÏ boxing. The two detectives who are assigned to work on the
case meet in the movie before the murder even takes place, because
besides being detectives, they are boxers. Donët gag yet, thereës more.
They are nicknamed Mr. Fire and Mr. Ice.
 The only thing
worse than those nicknames is the actual name of the lead character and
narrator of the movie, Bucky Bleichert, played by Josh Hartnett ("Black
Hawk Down"). It just adds insult to injury that the name of the actual
detective of the case was John P. St. John, nicknamed "Jigsaw John."
If that isnët a film noir name, I donët know what is. Hartnett is by no
means good in this role, but in all fairness, no one in the movie is,
either. He is just more noticeably lousy, since the audience has to
ride through the whole film with him.
Actresses Hilary
Swank ("Boys Donët Cry") and Scarlett Johansson ("The Island") play the
stereotypical noir femmes that Hartnett is torn between. Some of De
Palmaës worst directorial choices centered around love scenes between
Hartnett and these women. I realize that this film is meant to be a
tribute to film noir and is thereby pulling bits from previous movies
of the genre, but some of these moments came off as shtick and provoked
laughter from the audience. These stock moments should be retired from
the screen. No one besides Cary Grant should light two cigarettes in
his mouth and pass one off to his lover and no man should ever pull the
tablecloth and dinnerware off of a set table and fling a woman onto it
for the purposes of lovemaking. The audience knew it didnët look right;
De Palma should have known, too.
About the only
good thing I can say about the movie is that newcomer Mia Kirshner
("Not Another Teen Movie") is properly haunting while playing the late
Elizabeth Short. I predict big things for her.
The movie was
overall shoddy. The only good aspects of it were the ones that were
actually true. If you are really intrigued by the story of the Black
Dahlia murder, youëll have a better time going to Wikepedia.org and
figuring out who you think sounds most guilty. Personally, of the
suspects listed on Wikepediaës Web site, I suspect Dr. Patrick S.
OëReilly, an acquaintance of Shortës with a history of "serious,
sexually motivated violent crime," the most suspicious character.
"The Black
Dahlia" is dull, hokey and there was so much subtext that it made it
really easy to hate the lead character for not focusing more on the
murder case he is working on. It is also a serious challenge to follow
if you are not all-the-way invested in it. I give it two of my six
planets.
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