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Josh Hartnett dons his inner monologue hat once more as the lead in this attempt at recapturing the LA Confidential magic. The fact that it fails to do so comes as no great shock, but at least it does make a fairly valiant attempt. Despite primarily not being shot in LA, the film certainly looks the part and creates a good period atmosphere. The 40s-esque music helps a lot in establishing the film's effective mood too. There are two main areas in which the film slipped up for me: casting and coherency. Hartnett was a little one-note and bland, Aaron Eckhart failed to make much of an impression (a surprise after Thank You For Smoking, but then it is a much different role), and while Scarlett Johansson looked the part as a 40s woman, she seemed too young for the character. The narrative, on the other hand, seemed to suffer from that common problem when adapting weighty books to film; it tried to fit too much of it in and came off a bit muddled. I like complexity in plots but parts of it seemed a bit meandering. I did quite like the conclusion though, as it clarified some aspects of the plot nicely. Director Brian De Palma inserted a few neat directorial touches as usual which also helped to lift the film above average.
The summary
The Black Dahlia is a competent murder mystery with a well-created atmosphere, but it doesn't grip like it should.
