SOME MURDER MYSTERY WITH : "THE BLACK DAHLIA"

Ok, back to civilian life now. Well, in fact, not quite. Anyone vaguely familiar with the work of Brian De Palma will know that he is mighty fond of his cops and robbers. Now the robbers we are all very much aware of, Scarface, Carlito, they have all gone down in history as the biggies of their time. So let us turn our attention to the cops for a second. If only because none of them has even come close to achieving the notoriety that Al Pacino has given the bad guys mentioned above. Los Angeles, 1940’s. Two ex-boxers Bucky (Josh Hartnett) and Lee (Aaron Eckhart) are partners in the police force. But they have quite a bit more than their careers tying them together. They are known as Mr. Fire and Mr. Ice; Lee; Mr. Fire is the emotional, out-going and gregarious one of the two, also a heavy-weight boxer and the one with more of a “glistening” career. Mr. Ice, Bucky, is calmer, quieter a lightweight (literally) and the more junior cop of the two. But all their differences don’t stop them forming a bizarre ménage a trois with Lee’s girlfriend Kay (the enigmatic Scarlett Johansson). Their private arrangements are a little strange (I will let you discover them precisely as the film goes along) but they are good at what they do and have quite average lives until the “Black Dahlia” murder. Lee becomes slowly obsessed by the murder, ignoring duty and Ray and devoting all his time to obsessing about it. All Bucky can do is follow in his wake, the thing is, he must be very, very careful as he navigates his way; both Lee’s past and the Black Dahlia murder contains more dark secrets than he can possibly imagine. The end credits inform us that the murder that takes place in the film really happened but the film itself is a concoction of this and a novel by James Ellroy named The Black Dahlia. This is one of the things I like the most about Brian De Palma. A lot of his film tell a story that is – or at least contains an element of – true life. I’m not quite sure why this is such an important thing for me, but I truly feel that life is often much stranger than fiction and it enriches me to find out the most I can about it. The Black Dahlia is a true – blue nail biter. Stylistically it is brilliant. And even though it is a full two hours long, the minutes will, I promise you, fly by. The only thing is, the story does get a tad convoluted here and there.De Palma does give clear explanations and reminders but if, for example, you watch the film when you’re feeling rather tired and preoccupied (as I did) you will have a few “Wait, what?? Well who was… Oh… Right.” Moments. And again, the ending. *Sigh*. I mean, it’s ok. It is Hollywood I guess. You know what, in fact I need to say this, the film is so close to perfect I shouldn’t nit-pick. There. Enjoy.