Black Dahlia (2006, R)

This movie has been on my instant queue for quite some time now but I hadn't gotten around to watching it.  I guess it never called out to me.  But now I'm so glad I watched it.  The film is based on a James Ellroy novel that was inspired by an actual murder investigation in 1940's Los Angeles.  The film starts with a voiceover by lead-actor Josh Hartnett (Lucky Number Slevin, 40 Days And 40 Nights) as he introduces himself and another cop played by Aaron Eckhart (Thank You For Smoking, The Dark Knight) amid a police vs army vs navy vs civillians riot.  I'm pretty sure this narration and noir role were what inspired Robert Rodriguez to cast Hartnett in the opening scene to Sin City (which was also a test shot used to convince Frank Miller to allow him to make a film based on Miller's iconic graphic novels).  Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers, Girl With A Pearl Earring) plays Eckhart's girlfriend, Hillary Swank (Million Dollar Baby, P.S. I Love You) plays a raven-haired femme fatale, and Mia Kirshner (Not Another Teen Movie, The Crow: City Of Angels) plays the victim (she does indeed have some non-dead screen time as the investigation unfolds; this is not a spoiler, not a clue).


The police investigation was an ok part of the film, but the part that really scratched my itch was the major noir style to the film.  Some of the pulpiness in the dialogue felt forced and cheezy, but not in an intentionally cheezy way like in Frank Miller's The Spirit (which I feel compelled to point out had very strong stylistic differences from the original Will Eisner comic The Spirit), i.e. Rose McGowan's (Grindhouse, the Charmed television series) role.  However the major story elements, the types of characters introduces and the convoluted twists (I mean this last part in the very best way) were everything a neo-noir should have.  It was like a toned-down Sin City (one of my favorite movies) minus the Quentin Tarantino-level violence.  I must commend subtleness with which they presented traits of some of the characters: they show you without spelling it out for you explicitly (it's not hard to figure out, but I appreciate the filmmaker knowing that I have eyes, ears and a brain). 

A word of advice: don't be in a hurry when you watch this movie. The various twists take you well past the point where you would expect a resolution.   And you're not in it for the story, you're in it for the style.  For me, the movie is 4 stars, but that's mostly because I like noir style. To the story itself, I say wholeheartedly: ...meh.  If you like noir a la Sin City and/or 40's style detective stories, you should like this.  If you don't like cheeziness in the acting or confusion in the resolution, you won't like it.  Also, they throw a lot of names out there for characters they show only once or are refered to (I gave up trying to keep track of them), so if that's a problem for you... this movie will be a problem for you.