The Black Dahlia is set in 1940s Los Angeles. Two cops, Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and his partner, Lee Blanchard, investigate the death of Elizabeth Short, a young woman found brutally murdered. Bucky soon realizes that his girlfriend had ties to the deceased, and soon after that, he begins uncovering corruption and conspiracy within the police department.

- This is taken from imdb.com because I really can't think of a better or less concise way of describing the plot

The Black Dahlia is a film of contrasts; a film of unscrupulous beauty and startling ugliness, of engaging intelligence and mystifying stupidity, of rousing energy and overwhelming laziness. Stuck between 50's chic and modern-day cynicism it has no-where to go, has nothing to say and falls flat in practically everything it attempts to do. Uneven and confusing it doesn't know what it wants to be and lacks the heart, character development or intrigue to make you care. Dripping with pretentiousness, drowned in stupidity and suffocated by the most non-sensical script in recent memory The Black Dahlia offers no answers, offers no emotional satisfaction and only succeeds in being extremely frustrating.

Essentially The Black Dahlia isn't a bad piece of film making; infact it's absolutely beautiful to look at and consistently entertains, but it is a terrible piece of storytelling/script writing. It struggles to find a voice, is extremely sensationalized, frustratingly shallow and (most prominently) overwhelmingly confusing. Whole chunks of dialogue make no sense, characters motives are murky at best and the screenplay brings in sub-plots which have no relevance to the main plotline. Very little of the screenplay makes any sense and it's written in a way that casts doubt on the screenwriters understanding of the subject matter. Attempts at characters seems curiously misplaced as do the increasingly redundant (and perplexing) plot twists that add little to the quality of the piece. None of this is helped by a clawing, synthetic narrative which fits in with film-noir convention but is written without panache or intelligence and eventually becomes unbearable. You get the feeling that the writer had too many idea's and just didn't know how to sift out the GOD-AWFUL ones which makes the pace of the script agonizingly slow. I was forced to rewind the film on many occasions to work out what was happening and the finale offers no satisfying answers. It ends in a semi comic, absurdly unrealistic finale, that throws in a theory to the infamous Hollywood murder which in both unfounded and stupid.

However, the most disappointing thing about the picture is its lack of focus of the actual Black Dahlia case - one of the few Hollywood stories which is both horrifying and fascinating. It is truly stuff of legend and there are hundreds of theories (some viable, most not) that could have be explored. I wanted to know more about the victim, who she was and where she came from, I wanted to know what led her to such an unspeakably cruel death. Was she a nice person? Did her desire to be famous force her to stamp on some others dreams? Did she have any enemies? No-where in the film do we get a sense of the character and the murder case surrounding her death is curiously brushed off in favour of a sordid and uninteresting love triangle. The film also gives you no impression of the huge media coverage which surrounded the case, the impact it had on society or the movie industry. For all it style and bravado The Black Dahlia has a serious case of 'I've got nothing to say-itis', it ponders and examines and pouts (rather successfully in the case of Johanssen) but delivers nothing. It exists for no reason - it doesn't shed light on one of the most enduring and horrific tales in Hollywood folklore and it doesn't imprint any sense of what it was like to exist in Hollywood in the late forties/early fifties. Infact the promise Black Dahlia is really only a ploy to get bums on seats, because otherwise it would be completely uninteresting to cinema-goers and that's a little bit unfair. It is true that we will probably never know who committed this dreadful crime or even why, but I just wish the film had the courage to have a sensible, interesting stab at making a thesis.

The Black Dahlia is a gorgeous movie; beautiful costumes, stunning sets and impressive camera work all collide in a tornado of style and atmosphere. From the opening shots the film lays its rules down; moody lighting, smoke filled rooms and breath-taking visuals are the pick of the day and they do recreate the 'look' of 50s noir extremely well. As a master-class in visuals it is one of the best Hollywood pics I have seen in some time - everything looks right and accurate and realistic despite the heightened style and unrealistic crispness. The camera work is the first thing that you'll notice, long lingering shots allow atmosphere to develop and slick, fast moving camera angles give suspense and tension to otherwise redundant sequences (the opening boxing match being the most memorable'. Each shot is thick with cigarette smoke which gives an eerie grace to the thing (even though the constant sparking up seems almost hilariously misplaced. The camera sashes through the film, showing just enough of the action to be enticing, but keeping enough back to make you work a little. At times brash and at others tremendously subtle the camera work almost perfectly replicates the grace an heaving style which made film noir such a force to be reckoned with in the first place.

This is helped by the attention to detail shown from all involved in the aesthetics of the film - the sets are never anything but convincing, much like the costumes. The street scenes are punctuated with a real believability as is most of the gun-happy action. Infact the film is so startlingly beautiful that it's easy to forget the major flaws which suffocate the film throughout.

Most of the performances in the Black Dahlia are sub-par at best, others are screeching wreckages of mania and shouting, one is searing, honest, moving and haunting - this one has a running time of about 5 minutes. Josh Hartnett is saddled with a bland, dull and often annoying character and always one to rise to the occasion Josh Hartnett puts in a bland, dull and often annoying performance. He is not leading man material; he lacks charisma and garners no emotion from the audience whatsoever. Kind of unconvincing as a human being, he fails to inject believability into an already dubious character and manages to have zero chemistry with anyone on screen. This emotional barrenness seeps into his excruciating narrative which is real send you to sleep stuff. This emotional ineptness is shared by Scarlett Johansson who does nothing with a stupid, insignificant character. While she seems comfortable when playing the characters more sexual side, she seems painfully self conscious when having to deal with emotion. She and Hartnett have no chemistry so there scenes lack any spark or tension and leave you nothing but cold.

These are nothing compared to the scary, wacky, pantomimeesque styling of Fiona Shaw. What she was trying to achieve I will never know, she seems high as a kite and her performance is laughably manic and disturbingly stupid. Whether this bewildering lack of realism and scenery chewing was enforced by Brian De Palmer or Shaw just fancied doing over the top is never revealed but I suspect no-body would want to admit to it. Hilary Swank gives an uninspired, but watchable turn in the typical sexy but vindictive vixen. It's Mia Kirshner who really surprises though - as Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia) she gives a haunting, upsetting and mesmerizing performance. Rubbed raw with pain and lighted by a hypnotic presence she makes almost makes the film worth while. It is a shame then that her performance consists of a few brief screen-tests and flash backs - it really is astounding.

Overall, The Black Dahlia is a disappointing, flat and damn right confusing mish-mash of ideas and styles; with mainly sub par performances, a ludicrous script and messy pacing. It sure is pretty though...