The Black Dahlia (2006)

☆ ☆ ½

The Black Dahlia (2006) – B. De Palma

I’d basically given up on Brian De Palma long ago, so I’m not sure why I checked this out from the library.  Perhaps it was the promise of “neo-noir”, drawn from the same vein as L.A. Confidential (also based on James Ellroy’s work), a far superior film?  Or maybe I just needed something trashy after life got too serious?  De Palma was always trashy, even when his films had some merit (long ago), but, unfortunately, he got boring.  This film is boring despite its star power.  Josh Hartnett is a rather vacuous hero, not charismatic enough to carry the picture, and seemingly lost in the plot twists rather than actively engaging with them.  (Sure, that’s a traditional noir hero conundrum but we needed more of an active problem-solver like Bogey, Dick Powell, or Glenn Ford here rather than a passive “baby, I don’t care” Mitchum-type who gets suckered).  Scarlett Johansson tries her hand at the forties femme fatale but I’ve concluded that she can’t really act.  Hilary Swank can act and seems cast against type as another femme fatale but her part of the plot feels rather ludicrous.  Aaron Eckhart, as the somewhat shady cop/partner to Hartnett, plays cartoonish, perhaps trying to will the film to be bolder than it is.  I suspect the underlying book, based on a true crime story (the real murder of a wannabe actress in the days of Hollywood’s golden age), is a lot more interesting and the many characters and intricate/convoluted plot are done justice in a way that De Palma just can’t manage to put on the screen.  Even the Oscar-nominated cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond can’t rescue things.