Reviews by Matt

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet for a couple of reasons. A) I’m exhausted and B) there is not that much to talk about with this movie.

“The Black Dahlia” is a movie based on a book based on an actual murder case. When Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) is found brutally murdered, Officer Dwight Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Sergeant Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckheart) are assigned to solve the case. To be honest, that is all I can say for sure. This film is really confusing and has way to much going on at times.

The story is supposed to be about the murder of Elizabeth Short, but the amount of time actually spent on the case is minimal. The focus is really on Bleichart and Blanchard. Blanchard becomes obsessed with the case and his girlfriend, Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson) becomes worried and goes to Bleichart for help. Meanwhile, Belichart gets involved with Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank) who was involved with Elizabeth Short. There are way to many subplots going on here to make any type of sense. There are small back stories with both cops and their women that do nothing to further the overall plot. There were many times where I found myself saying “I thought this was about a murder?” The end of the film is rushed and seemed to wrap up things quickly and with very little continuity.As for acting, no one stood out. Johansson gives a bland performance as do most of the cast. For being such a star studded cast, the performances are so unimpressive and dull that you forget that these are supposed to be accomplished actors. I was expecting a little more from this type of cast and left thoroughly disappointed.

5ish out of 10
Rated R for strong violence, some grisly images, sexual content and language.
Runtime: 121 min