THE BLACK DAHLIA (2006)
BRIAN DE PALMA
Cast
Plot
James Ellroy's fictionalized tale of obsession, love, corruption, greed and depravity is set around the true story of the brutal murder of a fledgling Hollywood starlet that shocked and fascinated the nation in 1947. Two ex-pugilist cops, Lee Blanchard and Bucky Bleichert, are called to investigate the grizzly murder of ambitious silver-screen B-lister Betty Ann Short aka "The Black Dahlia", but the men's private lives keep colliding with their professional world and the more they investigate the more labyrinth and treacherous the trail becomes. Black Dahlia is visually spot on, but then so was LA Confidential' and everything about that film was spot on, so it's unfortunate that a good cast should have been largely wasted on an uncertain script and some misconceived direction. Entertaining enough, just not as good as it looks.