'Black Dahlia' withers under slow, confusing plot

By ANDY PAUGH Courier news editor

Brian De Palma, the director of “The Black Dahlia”, was quoted in Entertainment Weekly recently about being burned down to the ground every 10 years and still rising from the ashes.

Well, don’t look at “The Black Dahlia” as being his latest magical phoenix.

He certainly tries with it and at times, almost succeeds, but in the end, “The Black Dahlia” is simply too slow and too confusing, going in several different directions that have nothing to do with the murder victim the movie is named for.

Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart star as detectives Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert and Lee Blanchard, a couple of Hollywood’s finest, who are introduced when they box each other in a promotional stunt to drum up support for a proposition to raise police salaries.

After beating the tar out of each other, they are partnered together where they bust some of the bigger crooks in town.

As their friendship grows, we meet Lee’s girlfriend, Kay Lake (a radiant Scarlett Johansson, who easily blends into the 1940s scenery). This all sounds quick, but it is very slow in developing. They didn’t need to take this much time introducing us to the main characters.

It doesn’t help that we get frequent voiceovers from Bucky, trying to wax philosophical like Humphrey Bogart. (What is the obsession with Josh Hartnett’s voice, anyway? Is there any film he’s been in where he doesn’t have at least one voiceover?)

We’re nearly 40 minutes into the movie before the murder of Betty Short (Mia Kirshner) even happens. Nicknamed “Black Dahlia” for her raven hair and the flower that was in it, she is found gruesomely murdered, having her body cut in half and a rictus grin from having her mouth slashed from ear to ear. Bucky and Lee, who had been assigned to another case, take it on, over Bucky’s objections.

For some strange reason that is never really explained, Lee becomes instantly obsessed with the case. Whether it was the brutality of the murder or Betty herself, who we see through a series of movie audition tapes, he’s completely engrossed. If this had happened gradually over the course of the movie, I could have bought it, but it was within the first five minutes that Lee was hooked.

Through his own investigation, Bucky comes to meet up with Madeline Linscott (Hilary Swank), the spoiled daughter of an affluent former studio bigwig, with whom he begins an affair.

Madeline, we’re told, bears an uncanny resemblance and secret link to Betty. (Don’t buy it. Mia Kirshner and Hilary Swank don’t look that much alike.)

Maybe it’s the CSI world we’re used to living in where everything is wrapped up within an hour, but there never really seems to be that much work going on toward solving the murder itself.

The movie spends time exploring the relationship with Bucky and Madeline and Lee’s other obsession with Bobby DeWitt, a hood who had hurt Kay years earlier and is about to get out of prison.

All of a sudden, we immediately go into full sprint mode as if De Palma and company suddenly remembered they had a big murder case to solve and they wrap up the case in 20 minutes, and bada-boom, bada-bing, case solved, go to credits.

This part isn’t that bad, and it’s unfortunate they had to rush through the whole thing, because had they taken their time about it, it could have saved the movie.

But as it is, you feel like you are pulled in too many directions. Worst of all, they do nothing to aid the main story, which was interesting enough in itself.

And for his next movie, someone tell Josh Hartnett, no voiceovers. He’s hard enough to find interesting without him telling us why we should find him interesting.



One and a half stars



“The Black Dahlia” is now playing at the Ottumwa 8 Theater. It is 121 minutes long and is rated R for strong violence, some grisly images, sexual content and language.

Andy Paugh can be reached at aspaugh@mchsi.com

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