nan | 楠木

It’s hard to be critical towards such a film. But it’s hard not to be either.
On the one hand, The Black Dahlia has stunning sets and costumes, and the feel is great. The cinematography feels “old”. The mood is brilliantly set. I was all set for an engrossing plot.
And that’s where on the other hand the film fails. The plot is complicated. I had to rewind several times (thank god I was watching DVD and not sitting in a theatre) to catch some lines. Sometimes I felt I needed to pause and try to work out who’s who and how everybody’s related. And at the end of the day, though I feel I understood the whole thing, I felt I didn’t care. It wasn’t “important” enough, to justify adding so many layers of twists.
That said, I felt the actors and actresses did well enough. Hartnett seemed fit for his role, of a person torn by desire and anger. Eckhart, who I just saw in Thank You For Smoking, gives a completely different type of performance, and is also enjoyable to watch. Johansson and Swank also show enough charisma.
In the end though, the film is let down by its own structure. The plot got too messy, and the result didn’t seem to be reward enough for the audience’s hard work trying to figure it all out.
6/10