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.
The Black Dahlia
Inspired by the most notorious unsolved murder in California history.
2006 · 2h 1m · R
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Directed by
Brian De Palma
Overview
In 1940s Los Angeles, two former boxers-turned-cops must grapple with corruption, narcissism, stag films and family madness as they pursue the killer of an aspiring young actress.
Director and cast
- Brian De Palma Director
- Josh Hartnett as Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert
- Scarlett Johansson as Kay Lake
- Aaron Eckhart as Lee Blanchard
- Hilary Swank as Madeleine Linscott
- Mia Kirshner as Elizabeth Short
- Mike Starr as Det. Russ Millard
- Fiona Shaw as Ramona Linscott
- Patrick Fischler as Deputy DA Ellis Loew
- James Otis as Dolph Bleichert
- John Kavanagh Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
The pairing of Ellroy and De Palma proves a marriage made in hardboiled heaven.
The picture is a kind of fattened goose that's been stuffed with goose-liver pate. It's overrich and fundamentally unsatisfying.
This is far from one of the director's better efforts and should be avoided by all those who are not sworn De Palma boosters.
Mr. De Palma and his collaborators have been unable to translate Mr. Ellroy's depth of feeling into cinematic equivalents.
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