Movie Report: "The Black Dahlia"

The movie "L.A. Confidential" got me hooked on James Ellroy.

I wanted to read the novel, but once I found out that "Confidential" is book three in Ellroy's L.A. Quartet, I had to read them in order. It's the borderline obsessive compulsive in me. So I read "Black Dahlia" first.

That was a strange experience -- "Dahlia" was the first book that was so ... intense that I had trouble reading it when I was alone. It wasn't that it was scary -- graphic, brutal and shocking to be certain, but the only real scares are the depths to which the human psyche can drop. It was that I just felt better when my sweetie or someone else was in the room.

Early one morning in a hotel room, I actually had to put the book back in my suitcase until John woke up. Crazyness. But I can't help but be hooked on any author that can grab you by the gut like that.

So as you can imagine, I was pretty stoked to see this movie.

Let me say right off: It's not as good as "L.A. Confidential." (But "Confidential" is pretty damn hard to top.) Brian De Palma not withstanding, I'm not even sure it's better than "Hollywoodland." And if you're only go to see one of them, go see "Hollywoodland" -- the strength of the cast puts it over the top.

That being said ... "Dahlia" is still pretty good.

I've seen some reviews cracking on the movie because it isn't really about the Dahlia case. And it's not. The murder is a backdrop, a plot device -- the movie is about Bucky and Lee, the detectives.

Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett channeling Brad Pitt -- in certain shots he even looks like a younger Pitt, and 10 years ago it would have been Pitt in this role) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) are L.A. cops thrown together for a stunt boxing match. They become partners and friends, and they even fall for the same girl, Lee's live-in "lover," Kay Lake.

And then it all falls apart. It just so happens that Elizabeth Short, aka The Black Dahlia, is found on the same day that the descent begins.

The look of late 1940s L.A. is beautiful -- this was a time when everything was a little more ... put together than today. Scarlett Johanssen is a lovely ghost as Kay, drifting through the film in platinum blonde waves, champaign satin and pale cashmere sweaters. The sweaters are fabulous -- made me want to look for some vintage knitting patterns.

Mia Kirshner (from "The L Word") is sad and vulnerable as the Dahlia, seen in flashbacks. Hilary Swank vamps it up as a slumming heiress, and her family makes with the crazy.

It's a twisty, layered film noir -- there's a lot of plot and a lot of names, and if you don't pay attention it's not going to make any sense. So try to keep up.

But at several points I found myself thinking about 1946's "The Big Sleep." Now there was a movie that did it right -- Detective gets mixed up in a world of rich people with too much time, too much money and too many tendencies to the kink. Detective has to cut through the BS and set things right -- or at least as right as they can be. And Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall? Absolute perfection -- no "star" in the last thirty years can match the heat these two generated, or put so much snap into snappy banter.

So here's my recommendation:

1. Go see "Hollywoodland."
2. Rent "The Big Sleep" on DVD (If I really like you, I might let you borrow my copy.)
3. If you're like me and just can't get enough noir, go see "The Black Dahlia."
4. Come home and watch "The Big Sleep" again.
5. Read Ellroy's "The Black Dahlia." Might as well read Chandler's "The Big Sleep" too -- I read it on vacation this year.
6. Overdose on the noir goodness of it all.