Radio Lady Reviews: "The Black Dahlia" (Opens Friday, Sept. 15)

[Radio_Lady]

This must be the month for Hollywood nostalgia. In a little more than a week, I attended a preview of "Hollywoodland", which I have reviewed separately and, this week, I went to a showing of “The Black Dahlia.” The latter sports a wonderful cast, great set work, and cinematography. The film is directed by Brian De Palma who should be credited for the excellent performances he drew from his players.

Hmmm…with all that said, I have to add that this Black Dahlia didn’t bloom for me and that may put me out of step with many who will love it. However, if you choose to see “The Black Dahlia” and find the story more than a little intricate and difficult to follow, you are with me in what I experienced. I also found the final revelations at the end of this murder mystery also disappointing in that so many of the characters turn out to be so flawed and distasteful. The best of them and most heroic is Officer Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert, Josh Hartnett, who, in the end, is guilty of behavior that will have you even wondering about him.

Perhaps this review just whets your appetite to see “The Black Dahlia” anyway…out of curiosity to see what I'm talking about. That’s OK. Here’s the cast rundown:

Josh Hartnett stars as Bucky. Aaron Eckhart is Bucky’s police partner, Leland “Lee” Blanchard. Scarlett Johansson is Lee’s love interest Kay Lake. Hilary Swank plays Madeleine Linscott who is somehow involved with the murder Bucky and Lee are trying to solve. They are all top drawer in their roles as are the many supporting characters.

The recreation of 40’s Hollywood is great (even though is was filmed in Bulgaria, as well as Los Angeles!). I liked De Palma’s finely crafted characters. But I let the cat out of the bag earlier about not really liking the film as much as I wanted to. Hey, I loved Hollywoodland! Maybe this was just too much tinsel town for me. I’ll give it a "C" on Ellen's Entertainment Report Card for the performances and production values.

http://www.theblackdahliamovie.net/

[wildhorses]

1. thanks for the review...

still I am intrigued and think it would be better on the big screen than on DVD...the cinematography should be worth it, right?

[Radio_Lady]

3. The script is the problem. I didn't read the book, but people who

have read James Ellroy's book, on which this film is based, are divided in their opinions.

See this link for more information and reviews:

http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0387877/#comment

[quiet.american]

2. Is it gory? Given what happened to the title character, just wondering.n/t

[Radio_Lady]

4. The scene where Elizabeth Short is shown in two pieces is kind of

gory. It is low lighted, and that's about all I observed.

My primary feeling was the same thing I felt at "Syriana" -- the many characters were quite poorly drawn and it was an incomprehensible script.

[quiet.american]

10. Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like classic De Palma. n/t

[WCGreen]

5. It just looks Lush to me....

That is why I will see this one at the cineplex....

[Radio_Lady]

7. Be my guest, and don't forget to let us have your opinion on the film!

Thanks, WC, from ME!

[Arkham House]

6. I loved the novel, and love historical mysteries...

...so I'm seeing it this weekend for sure...the intricacy of the script won't bother me, but I don't really care if I understand it all, though I should..."The Lady From Shanghai" (from, ha-ha, 1947) doesn't make any sense either, and neither does The Big Sleep...maybe noirish films are better if they're a little incoherent...

[Radio_Lady]

8. You might want to read a review from Slate Magazine by Dana

Stevens. This reviewer claims to have read the book, and tells it like it is about this film. Here's an excerpt:

Murder Most Foul -- Brian De Palma's dreadful Black Dahlia.
By Dana Stevens
Posted Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006, at 5:33 PM ET

There's more moral weight in one paragraph of James Ellroy's somber 1987 novel The Black Dahlia than in all 121 minutes of Brian De Palma's florid, sprawling, self-satisfied film version. Where Ellroy exposed, with an often brutal candor, the misogynist rage behind his protagonists' (and his own) obsession with the beautiful, bisected murder victim of the title, De Palma exploits that same misogyny without a trace of introspection. When the movie does exhibit a flash of spirit, it's because some of Ellroy's dialogue has survived the glitzifying machine. When it sags—and there's a long enough sag about three-quarters of the way through that you could go refinance your home and still make it back for the closing credits—it's because, story-wise, De Palma has taken matters into his own hands.

But there's a reason De Palma remains in the rank of important filmmakers after a nearly 15-year run of bad movies (the first Mission: Impossible, in 1996, was one notable exception). Even when engineering a howler like this, he does it in such high style, with such a confident swagger, that the movie is half over before you realize how little is there. And De Palma has a way of surrounding himself with the best: The production design by Dante Ferretti and cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond give The Black Dahlia (Universal) a feeling of texture and solidity that belies its inherent flimsiness.

In the screenplay, co-authored by Ellroy and Josh Friedman, the novel's countless overlapping threads have been condensed to a still-confusing three or four plotlines. Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) are cops and former boxers who become partners after a bout in the ring orchestrated by the LAPD. Bucky falls hard for Lee's live-in girlfriend, Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson), but the crush remains chaste and the three become fast friends.

(snipped)

De Palma's last film, Femme Fatale, was frank, fun trash; The Black Dahlia's pretensions to be something more are what trip it up and make it, at times, embarrassing to watch. And if The Black Dahlia's ambitions are to be anything but pure camp, someone forgot to copy Fiona Shaw on that e-mail. She plays Madeleine's permanently drunk mother, Ramona, as a late Bette Davis by way of Margaret Dumont. She's uproariously funny in her one big scene, but was she intended to be?

"How sick are you?" Kay asks Bucky at one point in the film, questioning him and his partner's growing involvement with the dead Dahlia. Unfortunately for the audience, De Palma has no interest in answering her question, either for Bucky or for himself.



FULL REVIEW AT: http://www.slate.com/id/2149678

[flamingyouth]

9. Your review sounds like other people's comments

I think I might want for this to come out on DVD. :hi:

[Radio_Lady]

12. Good idea!

[lost-in-nj]

11. I remember the original

it was a great movie.
I still think about it.
Even before this one was talked about
Thanks for your reviews!!!

:hi:

lost

[Radio_Lady]

13. Let us know what you think if you decide to see it.

[Radio_Lady]

14. Have you seen this movie yet? If so, I'd like your comments, please!

[lavenderdiva]

15. Mr ld and I went to see 'Black Dahlia' this weekend...

and you were right in your opinion about this movie, Radio Lady. The theater was scarce with people anyway, and during the course of the movie, 2 people got up and walked out! I had read the NYT review, and it was scathing in its opinion about the movie, the actors, save one: Hillary Swank. Everyone else got a really bad review. After seeing the movie, I can say that I agree with you and them. It was awful; even Mr. ld agreed, and he can find something to like about most everything we see.

The plotline (if I can call it that) was very hard to follow, and had entirely too many sub-plots. The caliber of acting was less than stellar. Especially Josh Hartnett and Scarlett Johansen. There were many places where audience members were actually laughing out loud at the acting!

I was really looking forward to this movie, and was greatly disappointed...

[Radio_Lady]

16. Lavender Diva, you certainly hit the nail on the head. One of the

critics I read, Richard Roeper, taking over for the ailing Roger Ebert, said it this way...

Close keeps 'Black Dahlia' from making its case

September 15, 2006

BY RICHARD ROEPER Sun-Times Columnist

Well into the final act of Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia," I found myself asking questions one should not be asking nearly two hours into a noir thriller.

Questions such as, "Now who's that guy?" and, "How did that person know the victim again?" and, "Wait a minute, are we supposed to know who this guy is?"

Mostly, though, I was asking: "Are you kidding me? It all comes down to this contrived silliness?"

Such a shame that "The Black Dahlia" collapses into a gruesome pile of steaming camp in the last half hour. Prior to that, De Palma had crafted a jumbling and lurid but relentlessly entertaining adaptation of James Ellroy's sprawling novel, which is based on one of the most notorious murder cases in the history of Los Angeles -- a case that remains unsolved today, despite the best efforts of dozens of authors, newspaper journalists and amateur sleuths. (All it takes is a couple of keystrokes on Google, and you'll find yourself immersed in Web sites obsessing on the Black Dahlia killing, including some of the most disturbing morgue photos in existence.)

FULL REVIEW AT: http://www.suntimes.com/output/movies/wkp-news-dahlia15.html

Thank you for your post.

[Radio_Lady]

17. Dawn Taylor, who writes for the Portland (OR) Tribune, gives her opinion:

http://www.portlandtribune.com/features/story.php?story_id=115826376752298400

http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/34399421/575708

The Big Movie: 'The Black Dahlia' (R)
Film about unsolved L.A. murder is DOA
By Dawn Taylor

The Portland Tribune Sep 14, 2006

There will be many, many comparisons between “The Black Dahlia” and “L.A. Confidential,” both being adaptations of novels by James Ellroy.

In these comparisons, “L.A. Confidential” will win, hands down, every time. For while Curtis Hanson’s effortlessly cool earlier film captured the rhythms and nuances of Ellroy’s prose, Brian De Palma merely stabs at it in the vain hope that something — anything — will work.

The problem with De Palma, as a colleague said to me recently, is that he almost dares you to laugh at his movies. The director of “Scarface” and “The Untouchables” has a vision of cinema as grand opera, his characters often flying so over the top that they verge on parody.

For every one of his brilliantly conceived flights of cinematic fancy — five-minute-long scenes shot in one take, homages to Eisenstein and Hitchcock — there are at least three or four scenes in every movie that are directed as if De Palma just didn’t give a damn what ended up on screen.

Here, we have a typically convoluted Ellroy story of dirty cops, damaged dames, crooked politicians and murder, adapted for the screen in such a way that every detail is whisked on and off the stage far too quickly to give the audience a chance to catch up.

Two cops, ex-boxers both, are set up to fight as a publicity stunt and then, afterward, they become partners. Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) is the sensitive one, and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) is the brash one — their twosome turned into a triangle by Lee’s live-in lover, Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson).

Lee becomes obsessed with the Black Dahlia murder case and takes too much speed. Bucky’s investigation leads him to L.A.’s lesbian bars, where he meets bisexual Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), a supposed dead ringer for the murdered girl.

Bucky’s entanglement with Madeleine leads, naturally, to more murder, more secrets and the final revelation as to who killed the Black Dahlia.

For those interested in learning more about the infamous unsolved 1947 murder, this won’t be especially enlightening. While the notorious crime colors and drives the story, it isn’t the focus — sadly, there isn’t much focus here at all.

De Palma’s slam-bang approach to Ellroy’s novel is to stage everything in as artificial a manner possible. Subplots are so vague as to be incomprehensible, and the garish look and pace of the film suggest that De Palma’s entire knowledge of the noir genre comes from one drunken viewing of “Chinatown.”

It is, in a word, a mess. De Palma even cheats viewers who admire his famously indulgent use of the camera, shooting most of the picture in tedious, static two-camera conversations, offering just one impressive set piece (involving a garroting that leads to a gory second-floor plunge) and one ridiculous scene where suddenly, for no good reason, we see everything from Bucky’s point of view, with the other characters speaking directly into the camera.

It’s hard to tell what De Palma wanted to achieve with this film. Whatever it was, what ended up on the screen is a confused, ugly mess.

— Dawn Taylor

[Radio_Lady]

18. "The Black Dahlia" wilts at the box office...

'Gridiron Gang' Tops Flabby Weekend
by Brandon Gray
September 18, 2006

Though improving on last weekend's dreariness, the box office continued on its pallid way. Gridiron Gang didn't break out, and The Black Dahlia failed to meet industry expectations, while Everyone's Hero and The Last Kiss were predictably anemic. As inconsequential as the new releases were, they all landed in the top five for the weekend, which was down nine percent from the same frame last year.

Leading the pack, Gridiron Gang banged out $14.4 million at 3,504 venues, marking distributor Sony's 10th No. 1 debut of the year. That's a record, although the studio has released more movies than any other—18 wide releases compared to 12 through the same point last year. Sony's exit polling indicated that 52 percent of Gang's audience was male and 55 percent was under 25 years old.

(snipped)

The Black Dahlia, the second Hollywood murder mystery in two weeks after Hollywoodland, dug up $10 million at 2,226 locations. Universal Pictures acquired distribution rights to director Brian De Palma's $50 million noir-ish thriller for $11 million and reported an audience breakdown of 57 percent female and 59 percent over 30.


MORE AT: www.boxofficemojo.com