Black Dahlia, The : Movie Review


If all that mattered in movie-making was that the end result was pretty to look at, I would be giving Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia a rave review. There's no denying the film's visual virtues: the cinematography, the set design, the costumes, the hairstyles and the makeup. The screenplay, however, is another matter. For about 90 minutes, it moves at a brisk pace, flowing along a familiar noir stream that survives a few minor rapids but, as the end approaches, it goes into a freefall over a waterfall and lands with a crash. The resolution is so convoluted that it requires not just one but two expository scenes and, even after those, we're still not sure how everything fits together. While it's true that many noir thrillers emphasize style over substance, few are as fundamentally unsatisfying and confusing as The Black Dahlia.

See reelviews.net for full review

Author : James Berardinelli