"The Black Dahlia"
Saw the new Brian DePalma movie "The Black Dahlia" last night.
DePalma has such talent as a director that even when he makes a terrible movie, he can make it memorable and striking--as with "Raising Cain", which is almost grotesque in its awfulness, but deals palpably with DePalma's favorite themes of identity and sexuality and violence.
Unforunately that's not the case here. "The Black Dahlia" never seemed to draw me in as an actual story--I never began to care about the characters enough to want to follow the convoluted murder mystery plot. The actors seemed like they were saying lines, the locations felt like sets, the clothes like costumes. Something about it just never seemed to work.
On top of that the film was premised on some ridiculous assumptions. Mia Kirshner plays Elizabeth Short, the "Black Dahlia" who was murdered and dismembered in 1947 in postwar Los Angeles. Hillary Swank plays a bored socialite who becomes involved in the case after some friends remark that she bears a strong resemblance to Betty Short.
I'm not sure how they came to that conclusion, because even dressed identically, Hillary Swank is tall, broad-shouldered and mannish. She looks nothing like the gorgeous, petite, and very feminine Mia Kirshner.
Based on the novel by James Ellroy, the story has more than a few points in common with his "LA Confidential": seedy postwar Los Angeles, the world of low-budget stag and porno, two cops, one who's political and ambitious, and the girl who comes between them. LA Confidential even featured the "lookalike" theme in Kim Basinger's character. There, the tall, handsome Basinger didn't look much like tiny waif Veronica Lake, but the story and characters were so compelling that it didn't matter.
In "Black Dahlia", once the characters start digging into the mystery of who killed Elizabeth Short the entire movie begins to unravel, and the layers of truth and untruth become more complex and ridiculous each time they're revealed. Many of the characters involved are introduced far too late in the game or are introduced only in flashbacks or exposition, leaving the resolution with a hollow feeling that doesn't satisfy.
Aaron Eckhart is the only actor who really shines, with his charisma and appeal he is a terrific personality on screen. Josh Hartnett is his usual wooden self. The usually-good Scarlett Johannson fills out her sweater nicely but in this film seems strangely distant from the material, like she doesn't believe any of the words she's saying. A number of set pieces in the film feature some bizarre performances, including the Hillary Swank character's mother, who I would swear was channeling SNL's Molly Shannon at her most extreme and grotesque.
Visually DePalm has a couple of his trademark virtuoso moments but sense of artifice exposes the story as hollow and flat rather than drawing the viewer in. This is disappointing, becase I'm a big fan of DePalma. I quite liked his last film, the ambitious and sexy "Femme Fatale", and in general even his lesser films are stylistically interesting. "The Black Dahlia" may benefit from a reappraisal sometime in the future, but for now I can't recommend it at all.
DePalma has such talent as a director that even when he makes a terrible movie, he can make it memorable and striking--as with "Raising Cain", which is almost grotesque in its awfulness, but deals palpably with DePalma's favorite themes of identity and sexuality and violence.
Unforunately that's not the case here. "The Black Dahlia" never seemed to draw me in as an actual story--I never began to care about the characters enough to want to follow the convoluted murder mystery plot. The actors seemed like they were saying lines, the locations felt like sets, the clothes like costumes. Something about it just never seemed to work.
On top of that the film was premised on some ridiculous assumptions. Mia Kirshner plays Elizabeth Short, the "Black Dahlia" who was murdered and dismembered in 1947 in postwar Los Angeles. Hillary Swank plays a bored socialite who becomes involved in the case after some friends remark that she bears a strong resemblance to Betty Short.
I'm not sure how they came to that conclusion, because even dressed identically, Hillary Swank is tall, broad-shouldered and mannish. She looks nothing like the gorgeous, petite, and very feminine Mia Kirshner.
Based on the novel by James Ellroy, the story has more than a few points in common with his "LA Confidential": seedy postwar Los Angeles, the world of low-budget stag and porno, two cops, one who's political and ambitious, and the girl who comes between them. LA Confidential even featured the "lookalike" theme in Kim Basinger's character. There, the tall, handsome Basinger didn't look much like tiny waif Veronica Lake, but the story and characters were so compelling that it didn't matter.
In "Black Dahlia", once the characters start digging into the mystery of who killed Elizabeth Short the entire movie begins to unravel, and the layers of truth and untruth become more complex and ridiculous each time they're revealed. Many of the characters involved are introduced far too late in the game or are introduced only in flashbacks or exposition, leaving the resolution with a hollow feeling that doesn't satisfy.
Aaron Eckhart is the only actor who really shines, with his charisma and appeal he is a terrific personality on screen. Josh Hartnett is his usual wooden self. The usually-good Scarlett Johannson fills out her sweater nicely but in this film seems strangely distant from the material, like she doesn't believe any of the words she's saying. A number of set pieces in the film feature some bizarre performances, including the Hillary Swank character's mother, who I would swear was channeling SNL's Molly Shannon at her most extreme and grotesque.
Visually DePalm has a couple of his trademark virtuoso moments but sense of artifice exposes the story as hollow and flat rather than drawing the viewer in. This is disappointing, becase I'm a big fan of DePalma. I quite liked his last film, the ambitious and sexy "Femme Fatale", and in general even his lesser films are stylistically interesting. "The Black Dahlia" may benefit from a reappraisal sometime in the future, but for now I can't recommend it at all.
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