The Black Dahlia (spoilers)- Page 2

[broadway86]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 3:59am

Well, I haven't heard him take it back. :-P

Yeah, I doubt he took it back. But, even if he did, the studio wouldn't let that get out.

Seriously, though, I think he has praised Hartnett's performance in the film. I'm not sure where I read that, though.

No, I definitely remember reading something like that. I just couldn't remember whether he praised Hartnett's 'casting' or his 'performance'.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 4:18am

Here it is:

"In every scene, in every voiceover, his performance out-acts every performance in 'LA Confidential'", said Ellroy at the Los Angeles Film Festival. "Hartnett reads the lines... exactly the way I wrote it with near-perfect inflection every time."

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2006/0914/theblackdahlia.html

[broadway86]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 11:50am

"In every scene, in every voiceover, his performance out-acts every performance in 'LA Confidential'"

Whatever he's on, I want some. Now.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 3:35pm

I agree with his statement. I found Hartnett, superb.

[Nina Myers]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 5:20pm

Thanks, second, that's kind of what I was thinking. But did Georgie help kill her because he was crazy?

I'm still waiting for some genius to summarize the movie on Wikipedia.

[rose_pearl]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 6:13pm

I really wanted to like this movie. The cinematography was beautiful, but the movie was too damn confusing. And squeezing the actual murder story in the last 3 minutes of the movie made it worse. So yeah, unfortunately I couldn't enjoy it like I wanted to.

[Johnnytoc]

Posted: 9/17/06 at 7:00pm

I just saw this last night. I agree visually it's stunning. However it jumps all over and is just so darn confusing to follow it becomes quite a mess. Fiona Shaw's drunk dinner scene is hysterical...but so very drastically out of place. I found the boxing fight to be far too long and nothing was balanced well as far as the plot. If nothing else, it's pretty to look at; nice black and white symbolism.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 9/19/06 at 11:01pm

I saw it tonight. It's a fascinating mess. There's just no urgency to it. It didn't feel like the movie was really working toward the solution of Betty's murder. Scenes just seemed to happen in order to happen.

The film looks really sumptuous. The way it evokes the mood of noir films of the 40s is fun to experience.

As others have said, I think Hilary Swank and Mia Kirshner both gave the best performances in the movie. Brian De Palma probably clocks in right after them, oddly enough. The scenes with him directing Kirshner in the screen tests are hypnotizing. I'd watch a whole movie of them just strung together. Hartnett was pretty decent, if not necessarily good. Aaron Eckhart didn't really have much to do. He just seemed to go off repeatedly about Betty Short. That's a character? I'm not sure if it's even a type. I really don't even know what to think about Scarlett Johanssen at this point. I don't think she's very effective in the movie. She looks like she's about to vomit whenever she has to try to summon emotion in the film. Fiona Shaw and the actor who played Madeline's father were odd, but not uninteresting.

Despite enjoying Swank in the film, I'm not sure if she was really the correct choice for the role physically. I think she's attractive, but the wardrobe and make-up didn't do much for her in the film. I did think she looked pleasing to the eye in the dinner scene, though. The casting in the movie really could've been a lot better for the most part, not to mention the story structure.