Film: The Black Dahlia

The good thing about watching a film in Ilford is that you can come late to the biggest release of the week and still get a seat because everyone there is watching Shiva or Naksha instead. In fact, having six other people with you in the auditorium for a 6:15pm showing of The Black Dahlia says quite a bit.

Anyway enough of the social discourse. The Black Dahlia is another one of those films that you can't watch while tired. You have to pay attention here, if only to understand what is being said, but then further to figure out what the hell is going on. That said, Dahlia eventually spells it out (more so than, say, LA Confidential did), but having said that I did think it had to stretch a bit in order to tie the two main and distinct plot arcs together.

Technically, the film is very good; the acting, direction and production was all top notch. I finally understand how Hilary Swank swung that Oscar (I had only really seen her in 90210 before this), but the rest of the cast were blummin' good too. Yes, even Josh Hartnett. I did notice a slight change of style between this and LA Confidential; it was slightly more of a caricature of the times (check out the opening scene of an extreme example of how) and so softer - the violence doesn't seem as dark as it might be in other crime flicks.

Ultimately, as good as The Black Dahlia was, I didn't come away as satisfied and proud of "getting it" as I did with other films of the same genre like LA Confidential and the outstanding Brick (which I really want to see again after watching this film tonight). That's not a reason to give it a total miss though and I do recommend it; it's just wasn't of the unmissable quality that I had expected it to be.