This is one sick puppy of a movie. It is also entertaining in its own way if you don't take it seriously, and really, how could you?
Comment
09/20/06
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
61 - 80 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
A movie best described as Chinatown on Acid, The Black Dahlia isn't so much neo-noir as it is funhouse-noir.
09/20/06
Mr. De Palma and his collaborators have been unable to translate Mr. Ellroy’s depth of feeling into cinematic equivalents.
09/20/06
De Palma's typically graceful camerawork glides gorgeously from one plot point to another, but never settles down long enough to marinate in the heartsick dread this tale so desperately requires.
09/19/06
The film gets worse the longer it goes on, as Brian De Palma slowly loses confidence in his story and starts trying to compensate for it by engaging in overwrought melodramatics.
09/19/06
Film noir set in Los Angeles in 1947 is way too long, poorly acted, and covered with a haze of cigarette smoke.
09/19/06
L.A. Confidential, this isn't, but still worth a look, although you might as well wait for the DVD.
09/19/06
It's unusual to see a movie start off so strongly, only to collapse so badly by the finale. It begins like L.A. Confidential, but ends like a bad direct-to-video release.
09/18/06
'Character? Forget it. I'm playing me,' said Johansson. 'I'm the Burgess Meredith of T & A.'
09/18/06
Vilmos Zsigmond's lush cinematography alone is almost worth the price of admission, and Jenny Beavan's costumes remind us why the late 1940s were one of the best times for fashion in the modern era.
09/18/06
The climax retains its inchoate power, throwing you off balance.... From the glittering heap of a failed film rises the zesty aftertaste of something unexpectedly special.
09/18/06
Luridly entertaining mish-mash
09/17/06
Fiona Shaw's histrionics are so out there one could believe the entire crew was in drunken hysterics goading her on.
09/16/06
An appropriately misogynistic piece marred, nay, destroyed, by incomprehensibility.
09/16/06
To say [Hartnett] lacks charisma or screen presence is like saying Hurricane Katrina caused a few problems.
09/16/06
Words cannot possibly do justice to what a total monstrosity this film is.
09/16/06
There's fodder for a good film in the screaming headline material, but De Palma only gets a whiff of that ...
09/15/06
You can take it off the Oscar list, but is well worth a look regardless.
09/15/06
There are moments when The Black Dahlia projects a spectral world, but its ghosts in broad daylight are elusive at best.
09/15/06
The Black Dahlia feels wobbly and uncertain.
09/15/06
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