So, after watching my December Recommendation LA Confidential, I decided to prepare and watch another movie associated with writer James Elroy's novels. A movie that was not all much a praise moreover was not all up to par with its predecessor LA Confidential. To everyone who’s not familiar with the Black Dahlia, it all started around January of 1947, where aspiring actress Elizabeth Short was found brutally murdered in Hollywood, California and became a publicity sensation during that time, unfortunately the case was never solved and was left unsolved for decades, in fact that it became a popular unsolved case that there are fans to this day that are still interested which is beyond strange because really there's no way to solve this even if you can catch the killer so, yeah. I remember going to see this movie with my brother mainly because he was also at the time interested in the Black Dahlia murder and wanted me to get a history lesson, unfortunately the movie was not really a good idea for a history lesson.
Two cops in 1940's Los Angeles investigate the murder of a Hollywood starlet (Mia Kirshner), and one (Aaron Eckhart) puts his marriage in jeopardy by obsessing over the crime, while the other (Josh Hartnett) becomes involved with a woman (Hillary Swank) from a prominent family, who happens to have unsavory tie to the victim.
I remember watching this movie in the theaters as I said before, moreover, to be truthfully honest reliving this movie now it still has not changed what I felt about the movie and that is basically that it sucked. Granted this really is not the worst I have seen it is just that this movie basically sucked, and I have no interest re-watching this film again now that I've seen it, there are some funny moments, and a lot of the actors really chew up the scenery and I don't mean chew up the scenery I mean eat up the entire set and sodomizing it by end of production. Furthermore the entire cast really doesn't show much truth in their performances and it just feels like they just don't know how to act or they just gave up, two great examples Aaron Eckhart in the film, becomes a typical charming guy to a crazy nut job who escaped from Shutter Island, in his famous scene he all of a sudden barks at ScarJo who was just offering him food but flips when she puts it on the table hell even barks at Hartnett for no reason as well, and I felt bad for Hartnett in the movie because really, if I was him I would of just hit my breaking point when Aaron and ScarJo are arguing again decides to bring psych doctors over and say to Aaron's character "hey buddy how's it going"? "Making a lot of racket out here aren't you”?
"Why don't you do me a favor and put this shirt on", then Eckhart asks how come the sleeves are so long, then I would say, "oh that's because we're going to tie your arms behind your back because you’re out of your f**king mind". And what is sad is that this came out a year after Eckhart delivered his best performance in Thank You for Smoking and he comes out with this performance that makes me want to laugh at how bizarrely strange in how he plays obsessed with a dead girl’s murder. Two years before this movie came out Hillary Swank won her second academy award for Million Dollar Baby, after that she came out with this movie where she plays a mysterious femme fatale who as visually is stunning on screen but in all honesty don't really picture her as a antagonist and a great example would show that is when she introduces Hartnett to her family it really feels like I can look at them and say that they both need to be questioned indefinitely because they are probably wanted for murder. Moreover, I felt like Swank just half assed with her performance in this movie and it really did not seem right for the role in my point of view. There was so much sexual tension between ScarJo and Hartnett, that I was almost was about to show "STOP MAKING THIS WEIRD AND BANG EACH OTHER" because there two scenes where Hartnett is creeping on ScarJo and then the next they were in a stare down that I was thinking to myself, what does this have to do with the movie. ScarJo was not the only one being overdramatic, though I also felt bad for Hartnett after watching this movie because he was at the time a good actor, he just made one to many bad choices, moreover his character kept talking about Eckhart saving him and said it around three times that I could be Mr. Mackey and say, "yes he saved your life, mmkay". I refuse to believe that Brain De Palma stayed true to Elroy's novel, mainly because I've browse through some of the plot in the book and there's more storyline and character development then the movie has, furthermore this film is supposed to be a murder mystery and a so called tribute to the detective movies of the 1940's but I felt it really need to be its own movie not just another rip-off of LA Confidential and you can tell because they both have the same mystery jazz music, also suffers from not just the performances but also it's inevitable comparisons to other, more successful films of its genre. And deep down, this movie really needed to be its own movie with both the mystery and horror mixed in, but not be a typical crime noir. I think of all actors that are in this movie I feel bad for Josh Hartnett because he was in up and coming actor, he did a few movies I liked him in and I wished he did more even though I believe Hollywood did drain him out when it comes to the promises, I'm not going to feel bad for Brian De Palma because he should know better and he just failed miserably as a director, which is a reason why he never got much work after the Black Dahlia, in fact a long time ago in the late 1970s he gave crap to George Lucas in not understanding Star Wars, so I hope that he went to De Palma's house and say how horrible the Black Dahlia was for him as a moviegoer. As a movie it is probably the strangest and yet funny at the same time and it would probably be a while before I re-watch this film again. So, if you are ever feeling the need to watch an over dramatic movie, I would say this would be up your alley, but I would probably be lying.
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