Review: The Black Dahlia (2006)

There is an interesting story to be told about Elizabeth Short aka "The Black Dahlia". The name alone elicits a lot of mystery and intrigue. Short's graphic murder is one of Los Angeles most famous crimes and it still remains unsolved till this day. In 1987 James Ellroy wrote a book called The Black Dahlia which centers around a group of fictional characters and uses the Short murder as its backdrop. The book became a huge bestseller and created an even larger following of those who were interested in The Black Dahlia's story.

I've personally never read the book but I'm going to assume this is a story that is much better on the written page. Brian De Palma's 2006 adaptation, however, is a jumbled mess. It wants to be so many things and fails at almost all of them. The more interesting aspects of the story are given the backseat to a rather lackluster plot involving two detectives. Short's story is supposed to be the backdrop but the way it's short changed, it feels more like a footnote. Visusally the film is amazing which makes this a classic case of style over substance.

L.A.P.D. detectives Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) are the department's stars because of their unparalleled record in bringing fugitives to justice. At the time of the infamous "Black Dahlia" murder, where the dismembered body of aspiring actress Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) is discovered in an open field, Bucky and Lee are working another case, tracking a child rapist. However, Lee becomes obsessed with the Short killing and aggressively pursues a seven-day transfer for himself and Bucky to the taskforce. Bucky agrees only reluctantly, however, believing it's more important to get their original quarry off the streets. Investigating Short's past leads Bucky to femme fatale Madeline Linscott (Hilary Swank), with whom he begins a relationship. Meanwhile, sparks are flying between Bucky and Lee's girlfriend, Kay (Scarlett Johansson), but neither acts on them out of respect for Lee.

Like I said, I can see how this material could be captivating on the page. It really feels like it would be well suited for that medium. I think a part of the reason this failed is the fault of the marketing campaign for the film when it was released. The marketing department played up the based on a true story elements and made it seem like a crime thriller directly about Elizabeth Short. The truth is in the nearly 2 hour running time, The Black Dahlia herself gets about 10 minutes of screentime via some haunting screentests (more on that later) and the case itself makes up about 20-30 minutes of the plot. The rest is the not interesting partnership between Bucky and Lee, the girl in the middle subplot involving Kay, and Bucky's encounter with a femme fetale by the name of Madeline. All these stories combined do not achieve the same interest as Short's story. The fact the film constantly sways to bore us with their goings on, becomes a bit tiresome after awhile.

Then there is the ending which takes not 1 but 2 lengthy monologues to explain. To call it completely outrageous would be a compliment. For those of you who don't know about the real case, the explanation for the who and why involving Short's murder is purely fictional. The real killer was never caught and the story remains unsolved.  Since this is partly a movie of fiction I expected them to tack on an ending "revealing her murderer" but did it have to be done in such a silly manner? I nearly laughed out loud when it was all revealed. The movie literally comes to an abrupt halt when all of this takes place.

Viusally the film is excellent. 1940's Los Angeles has never looked so good and it rightfully deserved its Best Cinematography nomination it received that year. Everyone looks great in their 1940's period garb and the film actually crackles with energy when time is taken to soak in all the atmosphere. Elizabeth Short's screentest's are also well done in the film. They're done in a simple old school black and white and they leave a rather haunting impression . I became enthralled by the film whenever one was started but unfortunately they don't dominate the film.

The acting is a bit of a mixed bag. Josh Hartnett has always been up and down as an actor to me and for the most part he's a little flat here. His voice is actually just right for the film noir style narration that goes on in the film, but during scenes that require deep emotion he can't seem to get it together. Scarlett Johansson is another weak link. This girl is incredibly overrated in my opinion and she keeps proving it with several lackluster performances. The only thing I've loved this girl in was Match Point but I guess that was a fluke. Actually Hartnett and Johansson appear to be a bit out of their league here. Almost like children playing dress up.  Aaron Eckhart fares better out of the male leads. His character is a bit interesting but unfortunately Hartnett's character gets more exposure. Eckhart has proven himself to be a good performer, even in lackluster fare. The real surprises are Hilary Swank and Mia Kirshner. Swank is hard to take at first as the  sultry femme fetale but as the film goes on she slips well into the role. It was interesting to see her finally be able to play sexy and maybe they should give her more opportunities to do so. Mia Kirshner is mesmerizing as Elizabeth Short. She only appears in the screentest footage but she is truly captivating. The fact that she acts circles around Johansson and Hartnett with only about 10 minutes of screentime is pretty amazing. I wanted more of her. I literally could not take my eyes off of her while she was on screen. She gives humanity to the role and allows us to identify with her in only a short amount of time.

• David Fincher had originally planned to direct and intended to make a three hour version shot entirely in black and white. Fincher subsequently left the project apparently because he doubted that he would be able to make the film exactly the way he envisaged.
  
  
• Mark Wahlberg had initially signed on to play Lee Blanchard opposite The Brazilian Job (2011)  even though production on the Italian Job (2003) sequel was eventually pushed back.
  
  
• When The Brazilian Job (2011) was pushed further back in development, Mark Wahlberg, director Brian De Palma's first choice, was once again available for shooting. However, Wahlberg was offered the chance to work with Martin Scorsesse on The Departed (2006) and thusly turned down the role, which eventually went to Aaron Eckhart.
  
  
• In the earlier drafts, the Linscotts were written as the Spragues, the family name in James Ellroy's original novel.
  
  
• Mia Kirshner was originally intended to be feeding lines to potential actors in screen tests. However, her performance so caught the attention of director Brian De Palma and writer Josh Friedman that she was cast as Elizabeth Short and her role expanded significantly compared to the novel.
  
  
• Brian De Palma met Rose McGowan a year before the filming of this movie, and offered her the role of Sherryl Saddon.

• Gwen Stefani was considered for the role of Kay Lake.
  
  
• The film opened the 63rd Venice Film Festival in 2006.
  
  
• The book was optioned in 1986. It took twenty years for it to be made.
  
  
• The voice behind the camera interviewing the Black Dahlia is Brian De Palma himself
  
  
• Average Shot Length = ~7.3 seconds.
  
  
• Fairuza Balk was considered for the role of Madeleine Linscott.
  
  
• Brian De Palma offered the role of Madeleine Linscott to Eva Green, but she turned it down because she didn't want to be typecast as a "femme fatale" and the role went to Hilary Swank.
  
  
• James Ellroy's book was based in part on the true story of the murder of Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress who'd moved to Hollywood in the late 1940s from Medford, Massachusetts. A drifter and hanger-on who never managed to break into films, she disappeared in early January 1947. On January 15, 1947 her horribly mutilated corpse was found in an empty lot in South Central Los Angeles. Her murderer was never publicly identified or apprehended.
  
  
• Maggie Gyllenhaal was offered the part of Elizabeth Short but turned it down.
  
  
• When Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert goes searching through some photographs, you can see a real autopsy photo of Elizabeth Short.
  
  

• The screen test that characters keep watching are not in the James Ellroy novel. They were a plot device created by screenwriter Josh Friedman. The real Elizabeth Short claimed to have screen tested at major studios but no such footage has ever been found.
  
  
• The character of Lorna Mertz, played by Jemima Rooper, was based on a figure in the real case named Norma Lee Myer. Under the name Lynn Martin, she had been living with Elizabeth Short and another girl named Marjorie Graham in a hotel shortly before the murder. At the time of the investigation, Martin was fifteen years old and had several arrests on her record.
  
  
• Rose McGowan's character Sheryl Saddon appears to be inspired by a real person, one Sherryl Maylond, who had shared a room with Elizabeth Short and six other girls.
  
  
• In at least one earlier version of the script, Kay has auburn hair, not blond hair, as she does in the film.
  
  
• Brian De Palma's initial cut ran at roughly three hours and was a faithful adaptation of the book, with more time dedicated to Bucky's psychological breakdown during the investigation and his obsession with avenging the Dahlia. James Ellroy was shown a print of this version and wrote an essay praising it; entitled "The Hillikers," it was published in re-issued prints of the novel which were released before the film premiered. In the interim between Ellroy's having seen the director's cut and the publication of his essay, the film was significantly edited. After seeing the theatrical cut, Ellroy refused to comment on it, except to tell the Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Look, you're not going to get me to say anything negative about the movie, so you might as well give up."

• The film opened Friday, September 15th, in 2,226 theaters. It came in second place over its opening weekend (losing out to Gridiron Gang), with an estimated $10 million gross box office. It ended its theatrical run after domestically grossing $22,545,080, and grossing $26,787,612 in foreign theaters. This is considered a box office flop considering it had a reported $40 million budget