Since I was a child, I have loved film noir. I think it started when my parents made me watch "The Maltese Falcon" at age 5. Needless to say, I have jumped at just about every detective film set in the 1930s, 40s, or early 50s. I even like the neo-noir stuff. When I saw that this film was coming out I almost jumped through the roof. It looked like it had everything I like. There was a true unsolved murder, it is a noir-esquire film, and even the cast looked fantastic. However, for some reason this falls far short of the mark.
The story revolves around two detectives (Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart) who have been assigned together. The story is told through Bucky Bleichert's (Hartnett) narrative in true noir fashion. Blanchard (Eckhart) and his live in girlfriend, Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson) take Bucky in, but it becomes apparent to him that they are hiding some dark secret (get used to having dark secrets fly around like kung fu fighters in a John Woo film cause this movie's got a lot of them). Bucky and Blanchard begin investigating the murder of Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the black dahlia by the press, (Mia Kirshner) and Blanchard becomes obsessed with finding the killer. Bucky's investigation leads him to a dead ringer for the dead girl, Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), who has her own secrets. Bucky and Madeleine start having an affair (he discovered her at a lesbian nightclub). This is just a bare bones version of what is happening. If I were to go into the rest, I could be here longer than it would take to watch the film.
I think one problem with this movie is that it is going in too many directions at once. Granted, noir films often have multiple plots, but this one seems to have had too many. I think it may have been manageable if it weren't for the fact that the thing didn't seem to be that well directed. The actors and actresses, to their credit, do a good job, but something is still missing. The production value is high, but there are fatal flaws. The Dahlia murder is in the movie, but with all the other goings on it seems to be more of a footnote than the essential string holding it together. In addition, I don't think that this film was really the proper style for Brian DePalma. Not to pass judgment on his talents as a director, but there is something about the direction in this film that just doesn't feel right. Again, this probably goes back to the fact that the plot is tough to find. It seems like they got too wrapped up in the emotion and forgot the story. If you were going for "Chinatown", you got "The Two Jakes."
It's really a shame that this production didn't work out that well because I think it had quite a bit going for it.
If you want neo-noir, watch "L.A. Confidential" or "Chinatown."
The story revolves around two detectives (Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart) who have been assigned together. The story is told through Bucky Bleichert's (Hartnett) narrative in true noir fashion. Blanchard (Eckhart) and his live in girlfriend, Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson) take Bucky in, but it becomes apparent to him that they are hiding some dark secret (get used to having dark secrets fly around like kung fu fighters in a John Woo film cause this movie's got a lot of them). Bucky and Blanchard begin investigating the murder of Elizabeth Short, nicknamed the black dahlia by the press, (Mia Kirshner) and Blanchard becomes obsessed with finding the killer. Bucky's investigation leads him to a dead ringer for the dead girl, Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), who has her own secrets. Bucky and Madeleine start having an affair (he discovered her at a lesbian nightclub). This is just a bare bones version of what is happening. If I were to go into the rest, I could be here longer than it would take to watch the film.
I think one problem with this movie is that it is going in too many directions at once. Granted, noir films often have multiple plots, but this one seems to have had too many. I think it may have been manageable if it weren't for the fact that the thing didn't seem to be that well directed. The actors and actresses, to their credit, do a good job, but something is still missing. The production value is high, but there are fatal flaws. The Dahlia murder is in the movie, but with all the other goings on it seems to be more of a footnote than the essential string holding it together. In addition, I don't think that this film was really the proper style for Brian DePalma. Not to pass judgment on his talents as a director, but there is something about the direction in this film that just doesn't feel right. Again, this probably goes back to the fact that the plot is tough to find. It seems like they got too wrapped up in the emotion and forgot the story. If you were going for "Chinatown", you got "The Two Jakes."
It's really a shame that this production didn't work out that well because I think it had quite a bit going for it.
If you want neo-noir, watch "L.A. Confidential" or "Chinatown."