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De Palma surprises in this gruesome offering
BLACK DAHLIA
Directed by Brian De Palma
Certificate 15
JAMES ELLROY’S crime novels are providing a rich harvest for film makers. Ellroy, who has made stories based on the Los Angeles Police Department, was the author of LA Confidential, and Black Dahlia has a similar feel, even though it is set ten years earlier.
The best thing about this film is the style in which the story is told.
The feel is right. The backdrops and the period costumes give the actors a head start before they start using the dialogue. Josh Hartnett’s character detective Bucky Bleichart works superbly, and Scarlett Johansson, a giant blonde, has a presence which devours scenes.
Brian De Palma is happiest when faced with film noir situations played across a background that is sleek and mischievous, and that sums up Black Dahlia: based on a true story that gripped Hollywood, this uses a grim starting point that shows the city’s dark side and juxtaposes it against the glitzy aspects of LA.
De Palma starts by bringing out the relationship between two LA cops, Sgt Leland ‘Lee’ Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) and Officer Dwight ‘Bucky’ Bleichert (Josh Hartnett).
The pair are friends, but also rivals, and there is a sense of tension which involves Bucky’s attraction to Lee’s wife Kay (Johansson).
The pair are put on the case of a hyper violent murder of aspiring actress Betty Short (Mia Kirshnaer) but as Lee becomes more and more involved in the case, it has a knock on effect for his home life. He becomes obsessed and his motives appear murky. Bucky therefore needs to take a leading role in the investigation, and this leads him to uncover links to some of the big players in the city.
Bucky’s leads take him to the Linscott family, who are hugely influential in Hollywood, and have secrets to hide and stories to tell. At times the plot is over complicated; but if you lose the thread, it doesn’t matter, as the film works simply as something nice to gawp at.
LA does not come out of this smelling of roses. The usual collection of clichéd American characters crawl into each shot, all essential parts of the American Dream.
Throw in a heavy undercurrent of sexual tension, epitomised by some flashback shots of the victim’s hardly stellar career, and De Palma has made a gruesome, graphic and intricate story that has surprises throughout. |
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