Aspiring actress Elizabeth Short came to Hollywood in the 1940’s to make a splash and see her name in lights. Instead, she ended up dead. Director Brian De Palma (Scarface 1983) and Josh Friedman who wrote the screenplay have brought James Ellroy’s novel The Black Dahlia to the big screen. This crime film has most of the qualifications to be categorized as noir, the amazing blues music score, the style, the snappy talk, and a look into life’s unsavory side. Unfortunately, the line the story gets muddled. Actress Mia Kirshner portrays Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Short, who became better known in death as The Black Dahlia, dead starlet, than she ever did in life as Elizabeth Short, actress. The film focuses on Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) who are good friends, ex-boxers and the police officers assigned to the Betty Short case. The two detective’s interaction changes with one another and Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson), Lee’s girlfriend, after they start looking for answers to Short’s grisly murder. The case becomes an all-consuming obsession with Lee and Bucky falls for socialite Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank) who looks like the dead woman. Short never seems to be the center of the story before or after her death. However, her essence is always hovering. Some of the black and white Short interview footage that Bucky watches is disturbing and off-putting, especially, a film showing her in what is described as a “nudie” movie.
While this film does not rank with some of De Palma’s other films, it should get a mention for Mark Isham’s music score. Isham is also responsible for the music from the Academy Award winning film Crash (2004). Others in the cast are Mike Starr, Rachel Miner and Victor McGuire.
Rated R
No comments:
Post a Comment