De Palma's lamentable decision to reign in his wild directorial flourishes certainly doesn't do the film any favors...
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10/15/06
The Black Dahlia (2006)
34
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:179
Fresh:61
Rotten:118
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Though this ambitious noir crime-drama captures the atmosphere of its era, it suffers from subpar performances, a convoluted story, and the inevitable comparisons to other, more successful films of its genre.
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $22,518,325
Synopsis: Based on the novel by James Ellroy, Brian De Palma's THE BLACK DAHLIA stars Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart as a pair of LAPD detectives assigned to the most notorious murder in Hollywood history.... [More]
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart
Director: Brian De Palma
Reviews for The Black Dahlia
21 - 40 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
After two hours of meandering, convoluted indulgences and loose ends, 'The Black Dahlia' reveals a kinder, gentler Brian De Palma. He should be a good guy to have around.
10/13/06
The story is all over the place, leaving viewers with a complicated and disjointed picture that touches on interesting points without fleshing any of them out.
10/09/06
features amazing production design and a fascinating story at first, the film does eventually fall apart at the end.
10/03/06
full review in Greek
10/03/06
Until it derails while heading into its final turn, The Black Dahlia represents Brian De Palma's most assured moviemaking in at least a decade.
10/02/06
Kay is less a character than an image of the Dahlia's opposite (the blond/beige look versus the dark-haired/black-dressed look being your first clue).
10/01/06
The Black Dahlia is both a studious new entry to the genre and a schizophrenic parody of it.
09/30/06
Forty-five minutes in, I was already glancing at my watch and wondering why the only lively actress in this film was playing the dead girl. Go figure.
09/30/06
Highly stylized and overburdened with plot yet always engaging.
09/29/06
The movie, like the case, has some loose ends and some compelling moments.
09/29/06
With fall and its promise of better movies on the horizon, this movie, like "Hollywoodland," could have been among the most exciting of the new season. That neither is true for either movie isn't exactly encouraging.
09/29/06
A slick but empty period noir. De Palma can do better than this.
09/29/06
... Hillary Swank gives a Lauren Bacall edge to her femme fatale ...
09/28/06
the convoluted story never really takes hold, and eventually it all dissolves into low camp and unintentional self-parody.
09/27/06
Forget it, Jake. It's not Chinatown.
09/27/06
The Black Dahlia uses many cinematic contrivances that do not help tell the story of who killed Elizabeth Short.
09/26/06
The Black Dahlia is not a black mark on the talent track record of anyone involved. Yet with such a potentially powerful story, it should have been something very special.
09/26/06
Ellroy’s prose crawls into characters’ secret hearts and under the reader’s skin, but its foetid horrors become kitschy here, the script too streamlined and the lead performances too shallow to dredge the story’s depths.
09/23/06
The pairing of Ellroy and De Palma proves a marriage made in hardboiled heaven.
09/23/06
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