The picture is a kind of fattened goose that’s been stuffed with goose-liver pâté. It’s overrich and fundamentally unsatisfying.
Comment
09/23/06
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The Black Dahlia (2006)
11
%
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Reviews Counted:36
Fresh:4
Rotten:32
Average Rating:4.4/10
Consensus: Though this ambitious noir crime-drama captures the atmosphere of its era, it suffers from subpar performances, a convoluted story, and the inevitable comparisons to other, more successful films of its genre.
Theatrical Release:Sep 15, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $22,518,325
Synopsis: Based on the novel by James Ellroy, Brian De Palma's THE BLACK DAHLIA stars Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart as a pair of LAPD detectives assigned to the most notorious murder in Hollywood history.... [More]
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart
Director: Brian De Palma
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Reviews for The Black Dahlia
Top CriticThis is far from one of the director's better efforts and should be avoided by all those who are not sworn De Palma boosters.
09/23/06
Top CriticClick to read the article
09/21/06
Top CriticMr. De Palma and his collaborators have been unable to translate Mr. Ellroy’s depth of feeling into cinematic equivalents.
09/20/06
Top CriticThere are moments when The Black Dahlia projects a spectral world, but its ghosts in broad daylight are elusive at best.
09/15/06
Top CriticThe Black Dahlia feels wobbly and uncertain.
09/15/06
Top CriticDespite genius-level contributions from cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and art director Dante Ferretti, the handsome film is almost abusively murky, trafficking in difficult-to-follow plot manipulations, arbitrary twists and mumbled dialogue.
09/15/06
Top CriticIn The Black Dahlia, narrative strands tangle and wither, and minor characters clutter the plot.
09/15/06
Top CriticWhat it accomplishes with its stunning cinematography and set design is undercut by a lack of coherence.
09/15/06
Top CriticBlack Dahlia wilts from a surfeit of incident and a shortage of credibility, owing to a script by Josh Friedman that eventually turns to soap and performances that approach the hilarity of a Guy Maddin melodrama.
09/15/06
Top CriticWith the exception of Aaron Eckhart, De Palma's actors can't live up to the period or the atmosphere.
09/15/06
Top CriticDe Palma throws everything at the screen, but almost nothing sticks.
09/15/06
Top CriticJosh Friedman's screenplay doesn't so much distill the flavor of James Ellroy's hard-boiled writing as serve up indigestible chunks of verbiage.
09/15/06
Top CriticA wrongheaded collaboration between two opposites that has too little of James Ellroy's mad passion and too much of Brian De Palma's irresponsible style.
09/15/06
Top CriticBrian De Palma drains the life out of James Ellroy's take on the spectacularly cruel 1947 murder of a young Los Angeles woman known as the Black Dahlia.
09/15/06
Top CriticVisually dazzling but ultimately disappointing.
09/15/06
Top CriticThe convoluted plot would be exhausting even if it were believable. It isn't.
09/15/06
Top CriticDespite some amusing distractions, watching the big picture coalesce is not unlike watching someone complete a jigsaw puzzle. It all comes together eventually, but you already saw the image on the box.
09/15/06
Top CriticDahlia seethes with atmosphere, and Hollywood's underbelly is always worth an ogle.
09/15/06
Top CriticNo wonder The Black Dahlia has the suffocated tint of a face starved for oxygen -- this isn't film noir, it's film bleu.
09/15/06
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