A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The Black Dahlia

Date Viewed: 10/8/06

Details:

Josh Hartnett (Officer Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert)

Scarlett Johansson (Kay Lake)

Aaron Eckhart (Sergeant Leland "Lee" Blanchard)

Hilary Swank (Madeleine Linscott)

Director: Brian De Palma

Score: Mark Isham

Score: 0

The Review: Fall 2006 was the season for roots-of-Hollywood mysteries, reflexive noir about the unsolved puzzles of yesteryear, back when the movie business was glamorous and the powers-that-were could get away with murder. Or so these films would have you believe. This is the second of the two thematically similar films.

One of the darker, unsolved crimes in Hollywood's past has been termed the Black Dahlia murder -- a young actress found dead in a relatively public field, her body severed in two. The macabre event continues to garner interest, and this film is derived from a recent book, eponymously titled.

The police investigational team is comprised of two ex-servicemen, two ex-boxers who had sparred with each other at least once: Bleichert (Hartnett) and Blanchard (Eckhart). Considering the nature of the crime, unsurprisingly it quickly becomes an all-consuming compulsion. Caught up in events are Blanchard's sweetheart (Johansson) and an attractive daughter (Swank) of one of the studio big-shots. While confusing, the evidence is not herein assembled into multiple parallel packets, but slowly (very slowly) reveals a single, rather convoluted plot that sheds light into some of the darkest pockets of Hollywood myth.

If the back-story can be believed, the famous hillside Hollywood sign has a both a sordid history and a longer original version that (coincidentally?) was used to title the first in this nearly-paired release, Hollywoodland.

(1-Jan-07)

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