‘Black Dahlia’ director misses movie mark

In theaters

THE BLACK DAHLIA, directed by Brian De Palma, written by Josh Friedman, 122 minutes, rated R.

The new Brian De Palma movie, “The Black Dahlia,” is based on the legendary Hollywood murder in which 22-year-old Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) came to Tinseltown from Massachusetts in search of fame and fortune but instead found death and dismemberment.

On Jan. 15, 1947, her life literally was cut short.

Hers wasn’t your everyday murder – far from it. In a vacant Los Angeles lot, Short’s body was found naked, bloodless and severed in half, her mouth savagely cut from ear to ear in an effort to create a sort of grinning death mask. What Short experienced is the kind of grisly brutality that shocks even today, with questions still lingering around her death – why was she murdered? Who did it?

Unlike last week’s “Hollywoodland,” which was too timid to take a point-of-view in the death of George Reeves, “The Black Dahlia” at least comes armed with a theory. It also features the excellence of Dante Ferretti’s production design and Vilmos Zsigmond’s cinematography, which suggests that they had a handle on the genre in ways that De Palma, his cast and his screenwriter, Josh Friedman, didn’t.

Based on James Ellroy’s 1987 book, “The Black Dahlia” misinterprets the underpinnings of noir, amplifies elements that should have remained nuances, and turns the production into an overbearing joke.

While there are some pleasures to be had in the camp the movie courts – nobody who sees it will soon forget Fiona Shaw’s hilarious performance as the wealthy Ramona Linscott, for instance, which is startling in just how wrong it goes – it’s unlikely that unintentional laughter is what De Palma was seeking.

That said, it’s nevertheless what he gets.

The film stars Josh Hartnett as former boxer-cum-detective Bucky Bleichert, who joins his partner, Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart), in attempting to solve Short’s case. Together, they must work through a few issues – their mutual attraction for Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson, sorely miscast) being one – while delving into a sordid mystery certain people don’t want solved.

Such people include the slinky bisexual, Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), a wanton femme fatale who dresses to resemble Short and who pins her secrets close to her breasts; her shady father, Emmet (John Kavanagh), who owns a revealing collection of art; and the aforementioned Ramona, whose alienlike presence would be better suited in a movie about Roswell than Hollywood.

There are others, all of whom work to clog the unnecessarily dense script. Tin dialogue clangs throughout, with the confused plotting joining the phony performances in failing to come through. Unlike “L.A. Confidential,” which was successfully adapted from an Ellroy book, “The Black Dahlia” folds in the face of it. It’s disappointing. With fall and its promise of better movies on the horizon, this movie, like “Hollywoodland,” could have been among the most exciting of the new season. That neither is true – for either movie – isn’t exactly encouraging.

Grade: C-

On HD DVD

RED DRAGON, directed by Brett Ratner, written by Ted Tally, 124 minutes, rated R.

Brett Ratner’s “Red Dragon,” now available on HD DVD, spins a dark mood of dread and, for the most part, sustains it. As you’d expect from a prequel to “The Silence of the Lambs” and the half-baked “Hannibal,” a feeling of deja-vu hangs over the film, but not always to the point of distraction.

Fueled by Ted Tally’s gripping script, a fantastic cast and the liberating presence of a sympathetic new psycho named Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes), Ratner ratchets up the suspense and delivers a film designed to do more than simply milk a popular franchise dry.

Set 10 years before Clarice first appeared in her bad shoes, “Dragon” opens with a tuxedoed Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) seated at the center of a well-heeled crowd enjoying the Baltimore symphony, where an error-prone flautist is botching the proceedings and igniting Lecter’s ire.

Days later, after a swanky dinner party Lecter throws for the symphony’s board of directors – a phony group more interested in complimenting Lecter on that evening’s delicious mystery meat than in discussing the fact that the flautist has curiously gone missing – FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) comes to the doctor’s townhouse seeking advice on how to best capture a serial killer terrorizing the city.

What ensues is one of the film’s best sequences as Graham literally stumbles upon the truth – it’s Lecter who has been eating a hole through Baltimore. The violence that erupts between them occurs within the film’s first few minutes and is a mere backdrop for all that’s to come.

While it’s true that Ratner errs in freely (and mistakenly) courting comparisons to “Lambs,” it isn’t long before he gets on with the soul of his movie: The relationship between the Tooth Fairy, who’s real name is Dolarhyde, and Reba, a blind woman beautifully played by Emily Watson.

It’s in their relationship that the film finds itself and breathes, becoming a powerhouse of a thriller that thrums with life and scores with a crowd-pleasing ending.

With Philip Seymour Hoffman perfect as the tabloid reporter Freddie Lounds, a chubby sleazebag just corrupt enough to be interesting, “Red Dragon” had the difficult task of adhering to a proven formula while living up to audience expectation.

It’s not every director who could work within such limiting borders and still deliver a film as compelling as “Red Dragon,” but that’s what Ratner has done.

Grade: B+

Visit ww.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.