The Black Dahlia Critic Reviews

A few scenes are worth the price of admission for their inspired camp alone; Shaw happens to be in two of them.Read the full review

The Black Dahlia captivates with its dark style. But as with the particulars of the yet-unsolved case, the movie is frustratingly convoluted. What it accomplishes with its stunning cinematography and set design is undercut by a lack of coherence.Read the full review

Even when engineering a howler like this, De Palma does it in such high style, with such a confident swagger, that the movie is half over before you realize how little is there.Read the full review

The sloppiness of the ending doesn't only damage The Black Dahlia, it sinks the project.Read the full review

The production certainly looks sumptuous, and certifies Mr. Hartnett as a mainstream movie star. But the script is frequently impenetrable, the pacing is ponderous, and the film noir style can't conceal a crucial piece of misconceived casting.Read the full review

The second half feels heavy and unfulfilled, potential greatness reduced to a good movie plagued with problems.Read the full review

Mr. De Palma can be a director of dazzling creative lunacy, but there's little craziness in this restrained, awkward film. With the diverting exception of Hilary Swank, who plays a slinky degenerate named Madeleine Linscott, the leads are disastrous.Read the full review

The world of The Black Dahlia is beyond bleak, beyond film noir.Read the full review

Hartnett and co-star Scarlett Johansson--that most fatale of current filmic femmes--are naturals for this kind of noir-hued material, but the pairing of Ellroy and De Palma proves a marriage made in hardboiled heaven.Read the full review