The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia

Directed: Brian De Palma
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner

Two detectives try to solve a gruesome murder in 1947 L.A.

While I was hoping for an intriguing, film noir murder mystery with femme fatales, what I got instead was a sleazy mess. I’ve never been a Josh Hartnett fan and this movie didn’t help that opinion. He was as boring as usual, especially in his voice overs. He didn’t have chemistry with either Scarlett Johansson or Hilary Swank’s characters. Scarlett Johansson was just weird in the movie. She was playing the two detectives off each other, but she didn’t seem to actually like either one very much.

Mia Kirshner plays the dead girl who should be the main plot of the story, but it almost seems like an afterthought. So much time is spent on Harnett’s detective investigating Hilary Swank and her family, supposedly for the case, but there is so much other icky stuff going on with that family that the murder was just an afterthought. When everything comes to light, the reasons why Mia’s character died, are so dumb and make no sense. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Rating: C

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