The Black Dahlia.
Oct. 1st, 2006 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
per_soloFirst, avoid the movie if you expect it to lay down the case. This is fictionalized version, much like how some movies say "Inspired by real life events", but that's really just a hook.
This is more of a Film Noir, wrapped/tied in with the Black Dahlia.
I went in with low expectations, and ended up liking it much more than I thought I would, and yes, mocking parts of it really helped. Of course, having seen Kirshner play this character (and I swear, there was one part that was true "Jenny" schizoid, going from one mindset/personna to another in the space of a sentence), it was kinda hard NOT to think L Word as the movie progressed, and you see more of her in retrospect.
Random thoughts on it?
I'm getting really tired of Kirshner only playing ONE character throughout her life.
Hartnett could really start making a career out of doing the "Narrator voice-over" schtick.
Swank was pretty good, actually. Johansson, on the other hand, REALLY took the Noir "Melodramatic" bit to heart.
Hartnett, too, proved that he could do the melodrama, and one crucial bed scene caused me to wince.
The scenes of the Dahlia dead, only a few of them were graphic enough to cause the squeamish to squirm. However, those were particularly rough. I've been trained on graphic horror films since early childhood (I think I saw Alien when I was 8), so maybe there is a thought to the whole "desensitizing" theory.
Thanks to the review I'd read, we were keeping track of cigarettes during the movie. Final tally was 70-some, as I think we lost track. But that's close. And once we were counting, it was hard not to laugh as one scene ended with a character smoking, and the next opened with them lighting up. I understand that it's part of Noir, but man, wanna talk overkill. And maybe that's what DePalma was going for.
People who like puzzle movies? I think will dig this, as once the pieces start clicking into place, it's a little satisfying. However, they throw a few curve balls at you that seem to come from left field. Others that will like it are Film Noir fans.
However, anyone who thinks this is going to be a serious piece about the killing most definitely won't.
Also, anyone who likes keeping track of 2 or 3 plotlines/threads will REALLY dig it, as you pretty much have 3, that I counted, running the course of the movie.
So, all in all, I liked it. I still love LA Confidential better, but this didn't feel like a complete waste. No, it didn't feel worth 9.25, but it didn't feel like the money was completely wasted, either.
This is more of a Film Noir, wrapped/tied in with the Black Dahlia.
I went in with low expectations, and ended up liking it much more than I thought I would, and yes, mocking parts of it really helped. Of course, having seen Kirshner play this character (and I swear, there was one part that was true "Jenny" schizoid, going from one mindset/personna to another in the space of a sentence), it was kinda hard NOT to think L Word as the movie progressed, and you see more of her in retrospect.
Random thoughts on it?
I'm getting really tired of Kirshner only playing ONE character throughout her life.
Hartnett could really start making a career out of doing the "Narrator voice-over" schtick.
Swank was pretty good, actually. Johansson, on the other hand, REALLY took the Noir "Melodramatic" bit to heart.
Hartnett, too, proved that he could do the melodrama, and one crucial bed scene caused me to wince.
The scenes of the Dahlia dead, only a few of them were graphic enough to cause the squeamish to squirm. However, those were particularly rough. I've been trained on graphic horror films since early childhood (I think I saw Alien when I was 8), so maybe there is a thought to the whole "desensitizing" theory.
Thanks to the review I'd read, we were keeping track of cigarettes during the movie. Final tally was 70-some, as I think we lost track. But that's close. And once we were counting, it was hard not to laugh as one scene ended with a character smoking, and the next opened with them lighting up. I understand that it's part of Noir, but man, wanna talk overkill. And maybe that's what DePalma was going for.
People who like puzzle movies? I think will dig this, as once the pieces start clicking into place, it's a little satisfying. However, they throw a few curve balls at you that seem to come from left field. Others that will like it are Film Noir fans.
However, anyone who thinks this is going to be a serious piece about the killing most definitely won't.
Also, anyone who likes keeping track of 2 or 3 plotlines/threads will REALLY dig it, as you pretty much have 3, that I counted, running the course of the movie.
So, all in all, I liked it. I still love LA Confidential better, but this didn't feel like a complete waste. No, it didn't feel worth 9.25, but it didn't feel like the money was completely wasted, either.
