Black Dahlia (2006)

They say that sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, well hollywood doesn’t think so.

This big screen redention of the Black Dahlia tale is apparently an adaptation of the James Ellroy’s novel by the same name. 

Before this film came about, I had never heard about the Black Dahlia case and the shroud of mystery surrounding it. I also did not read anything about it until after I saw the movie, because I did not want to go in tainted.

Well, based on what I have read now I find the actually story of the movie to be of greater interest, since the two do not really fit together in anyway. From what I have quickly gather based on a little research, the only thing that links this film and the actual event was that there was a person that was labelled the Black Dahlia by the press when she was murdered in the way indicated by the film. From there they begin to take creative liberties.

An interesting note about the film is that it is called the Black Dahlia, but really does not have a whole lot to do with it. It basically follows the life of one of the detectives that was investing the case among other things. In many ways it is an overly complex mess, but I am not sure that is because the story is bad itself, or it was just bad acting.

Now, I know that Harnett is a bad actor, and he gave a stilted performance as was to be expected. Actually, I suppose Eckhart did a pretty decent job, despite the bizzare behavior of his character. The disappointment was with Johansson and Swank. Those two actresses have at least proved themselves to be relatively competent. But, in this film they seemed like they had no idea what they were doing, granted the dialog written for them was nothing special. I don’t know, maybe it was just the direction.

On some what of a bizzare note, Mia did a pretty good job portraying Elizabeth Short in some casting films collected by the LAPD in the film. It is kind of funny that Mia is in fact quite a bit better looking than the original Black Dahlia, but that’s not really a problem.

But, still, the movie is basically a total fabrication. Well, at least from what I have pieced together in the last hour. There are numerous sources of information about it on the internet that you can check out if you are interested in the matter including the FBI documents released thanks to the freedom of information act.

LA Times Original Articles
FBI’s Black Dahlia Files
A Black Dahlia Informational Site
And, of course, the wikipedia entry

Now, I bet at this point you think that I did not like the film, right? Well, that is not the case as it was actually pretty good. I have always found the fall to be a slow season for films, so this one is a pleasant gem in the sea of blah.

Thus, I suppose that I would classify this film as a recommendation, because there is not a lot better playing in theaters right now.