Movie Review: The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia, starring Josh Harnett, Scarlet Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, and Hilary Swank.

I've been fascinated with the unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short for a long time, but I never really dug into the history of it until this movie. My roommate is a lover of all things serial killer so I know she was absolutely fascinated by this story, maybe the most notorious unsolved murder in California's history (we all know OJ did it). So Anita and I last night were looking for something to watch last night as we ate dinner and decided on The Black Dahlia, something we had both wanted to see last fall just never got around to it.

On the surface this movie has all the tools to be VERY successful. It has a two time oscar winner, Hilary Swank, the IT girl of the last few years, Scarlet Johansson, an award winning director, Brian De Palma, and a book by acclaimed writer James Ellroy. Aaron Eckhart was an extra bonus for me as I enjoy pretty much everything I've seen him in (Thank You For Smoking, Suspect Zero) and he will be our new Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight and I'm all kinds of excited to see how he portrays Two-Face. Everything seemed in place, so where exactly did it all go wrong?

For myself I think it has to do with the murder itself not truly being the centerpiece of the movie and more of a plot device to tell the story of Eckhart, Harnett, and Johansson. Even with that story you lose Eckhart's character halfway through the movie and it does a poor job explaining why he's doing what he's doing. They give you one line why this case is more personal to him then any other, but other then that (which doesn't do a good job of that) there is no real explanation. I loved the chemistry between Harnett, Johansson and Eckhart, but again there was no real explanation as to why they did the things they did, it almost assumes the audience knows that this kind of life is normal.

Mira Kirshner, wonderful actress (24, Crow City of Angels), is highly underused in this picture as well. We get to see her in screen tests, but that is the extent of that. I believe what the problem with this film is that it doesn't really look into the murder what so ever, sure they give you a killer and the like, but none of it is based on any kind of known fact. The murder is merely the backdrop where it needs to be the centerpiece if the movie is called The Black Dahlia. Though it is one of the few movies I've seen where I've actually found Hilary Swank attractive.

Sadly it appears that Josh Harnett is doomed to romance his best friend's lady after they die (allegedly in some movies). He actually did a well enough job acting wise to hang with four other actors who are much better then he is, but that doesn't help when there is loophole after loophole in the story and plot. I haven't read the book, maybe it fills those gaps and this could be a result of the studio having editing ability, but that is where the movie fails.

The Black Dahlia, C.