De Palma’s talent wasted on period–piece yawnfest

John Egan

Fourth Estate

Commentary

Violence, sex and a murder mystery. An all-star cast of actors and actresses. The author of “LA Confidential.” The director of “Scarface” and “The Untouchables.” Sometimes, even with all of the right elements, a movie can still suck.

“The Black Dahlia” is the latest film from Brian De Palma. Based on a famous unsolved Los Angeles murder, the movie follows detectives Bucky Bleichert (Josh Harnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) as they search for the killer of an aspiring actress.

Much like “LA Confidential,” the movie is a period piece full of hats, film noir dialogue and, of course, dames, like Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank. Johansson plays Kay Lake, Blanchard’s girlfriend who clearly has a thing for Bliechert. The three of them hang out constantly, and they give off a weird three-way vibe that doesn’t make sense.

Meanwhile, Bliechert is attracted to Swank’s character, Madeleine Linscott, a former lover of the murdered actress who looks exactly like her. Bliechert becomes more and more suspicious of Linscott and even the police department as he and Blanchard sink deeper and deeper into the murder.

From there, the movie just becomes boring and confusing. There is little to no character development, so basically when characters are either killers or hurt, no one really cares.

Instead of being a gritty, twisting thrill ride like “LA Confidential” or De Palma’s other movies, “Dahlia” comes off as a whiny, drawn-out borefest. The murder of the Black Dahlia actress doesn’t even happen until about halfway into the movie.

But wait, John. You just said there is no character development, but also there is no action until well into the movie? That doesn’t make sense.

Exactly, John. The film introduces so many characters and situations that the audience doesn’t really know what is going on. Not to mention there is no telling who is friends, enemies, lovers or anything else.

The movie moves slow even for a period piece, and the audience’s attention is lost very quickly.

Even the ending comes out of nowhere. The killers are all revealed, and it makes no sense. There is no way the audience could have figured it out. It lasts so long that it is almost annoying to watch as secrets are revealed over and over while more characters are involved. The only sense of total relief is when the credits start rolling.

Unless you are in the perfect mood, this movie is something to avoid. A fantastic cast with good performances just isn’t always enough to make a crappy movie good.

Yawn. I’m already bored talking about it.

E

4Play ratings: EEEE — Amazing EEE — Good EE — OK E — Aweful e — Craptastic