THE BLACK DAHLIA (R) **1/2

 

Directed by Brian De Palma. 121 minutes.

Starring Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johannson, Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank and Rose McGowan. Released by Universal Pictures.

 

Brian De Palma’s film version of James Ellroy’s novel The Black Dahlia is a triumph visually and stylistically but a letdown in the storytelling department. The film not only brilliantly captures 1940s Los Angeles, but the film stock even has a certain glow that many classic color films exude. As always, De Palma’s camera work is imaginative, employing a number of terrific shots throughout the picture, and many of the best of the director’s stylistic flourishes can be seen here. But the film suffers from some severe over plotting, not so successful story twists, mixed performances and a convoluted ending.

 

For those of you who don’t know, the Black Dahlia case was one of Hollywood legend – one of the first real tabloid murders, which, in 1947, made some serious headlines. The Dahlia, named after the dark clothing she was known to wear, was named Elizabeth Short, who was a small town Massachusetts girl who moved to the big city of L.A. to pursue an acting career. Unfortunately, at least based on this film, she ended up doing a lot of exploitative screen tests and stag films. Even more unfortunately, she ended up dead in a film, cut in half with her blood drained and vital organs removed and a permanent smile cut from ear to ear. The case was never solved, making it all the more notorious, but De Palma, working from Ellroy’s novel, gives the story some closure here.

 

The odd thing in De Palma’s film is, however; that the Dahlia case only comprises a small portion of the movie. The real story here is that of two tough Los Angeles detectives – Bucky Bleichart (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart), whose names provide some nice alliteration if you say them quickly. We first meet the cops busting heads in the Los Angeles zoot suit riots. They also meet in the ring for a thrown boxing match, for which they earn enough money for pensions at their police department.

 

The two cops are staking out a drug dealer when Short’s body is discovered a few blocks away. De Palma shows us the discovery of the body in one of the film’s virtuoso shots – the camera cranes up the side of a building, where we see two crows on top, and then we spot a woman discovering the Dahlia in a field across the street. The camera then swoops down and back around to where Bucky and Lee await their man in a car. The shot is De Palma at his best. We can also thank him for not showing too much of the Dahlia’s corpse, at least, not until later when she is on an operating table, but even then is obscured by shadows. For a director known to be given to excess, the omission inspires gratefulness.

 

Bucky and Lee’s investigation, of course, leads to dirty dealings and one of the strangest dinner scenes since Eraserhead, as well as a femme fatale in the person of Hilary Swank. The film is a continual house of mirrors as De Palma rotates story lines – a love triangle between Johannson, Hartnett and Eckhart; the Dahlia case; Hartnett and Swank; the release of a felon from prison, etc. De Palma also throws in another recognizable touch – in another well-choreographed sequence, Eckhart fights off some hoods as a shadowy figure steps out of the shadows, producing a knife. The scene reflected a number of similar shots from previous De Palma films, especially Blow Out and Dressed to Kill.

 

The problem here is not the camera work or look of the film, but the story line. The end of the film becomes really convoluted and the ties to the 1928 horror classic The Man Who Laughs, as well as the film’s final denouement are just a bit too much to swallow. But The Man Who Laughs is used well in another scene in which Hartnett, Eckhart and Johannson watch the film in a theater and we learn why Johannson reacts so strongly later when Hartnett spots her naked back from the bottom of a staircase.  Although a torture chamber where the Dahlia was likely to have been killed is super creepy, the explanation of what happened in that room is a bit too much. While everything is finally tied together in the film, it just ends up feeling like overkill.

 

The film’s performances are all over the place. Hartnett often seems too mute, while Eckhart could have benefited from being subdued and Johannson tries to flesh out her character. Swank is the show stopper here and makes her character believable, if not just a tad bit weird.

 

I had the same reaction to The Black Dahlia as I recently did to World Trade Center – I feel there is much to praise and that there are many elements to both films that would make me come close to recommending them. But, in the end, they both fall somewhat short of the mark. De Palma is a brilliant stylist and a filmmaker of great talent. It’s a shame he does not quite pull it off with Dahlia because you can see where he is going with the film and recognize his stylistic touches, but the story nearly ends up being as impenetrable as the real Black Dahlia case.