Hilary Swank Looks Absolutely Nothing Like Mia Kirshner

So, you know, that plot point in "The Black Dahlia" is just totally ludicrous. Everybody who says they look alike in the movie just appears to be blind. Anyway, I rented "Hollywoodland" from Netflix, and "Black Dahlia" arrived the same say, and I used to to be a movie critic, so I guess the point is, to quote the philosopher Innes, "I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn."

"Hollywoodland" is, in principle, a story of the death of George Reeves, the actor who played Superman in the television series "The Adventures of Superman." Upon watching the movie, however, I find that the performances jump out from the story, such as it is. The story actually goes nowhere. The plot, such as it is, has almost no structure. "Rosencrantz and Guyildenstern are Dead" has a stronger narrative structure. The movie does not so much end, as stop.

Basically, L.A. private detective Louis Simo (Adrien Brody) takes a case for George Reeves' mother: investigate the death of George Reeves. Louis Simo appears, from what we see, to be a competent enough working detective. He's a real person in the sense that he has a kid and an ex-wife. He wants more. He wants his name in the papers. He sleeps with his assistant, an aspiring actress. But he also takes his kid to work and comes over to talk to him when he gets upset about the death of Superman. He's a realistic, three-dimensional character. It's a great performance by a wonderful actor at the peak of his abilities, and it's a real shame that this portrayal does not mesh well with the film noir style Allen Coulter used to actually film the story. (He claims he didn't in the commentary, but no dice. He was religious in his attention to period detail, and if you do that in 1950's L.A., and have one character manipulated by beautiful women, and a private dick get beaten up a few times, well, sorry.)

Simo's plan is not to solve the case, but to get the press to put so much pressure on the police that they have to re-open the case. His investigation of Reeve's death leads to an examination of his life as well. George Reeves (Ben Affleck in make-up) is also a real person. His death is both the driving force behind the movie and the a look at the life of a working actor. Reeves also wanted more from his life. He's basically a kept man, with Toni Mannix (Diane Lane made up to look slightly older) as his mistress. Reeves is remembered today only as Superman, but the movie makes a fair point, he was in "Gone with the Wind" and "From Here to Eternity," and worked steadily for twenty years. That's not a bad career for a working actor. Sure he was typecast after Superman, but he could probably have picked up some directing work, and he was engaged to an attractive young lady with the initials L.L. (Leonore Lemmon played by the lovely Robin Tunney).

Again, the realistic portrayal probably needed a more agressively modern style. The use of period imagery is just too noir, especially since the movie doesn't come to a real end. We are presented with a few potential scenarios of Reeves' death, but nothing definitive. Suicide seems as good a theory as any. The ending, such as it is, tries to suggest that Simo has learned from Reeves' example to be satisfied with his own life, but what we actually see is Simo doing the same stuff we saw him do earlier in the movie, so where's the redemption? He appears to be a reasonably responsible parent before the movie starts, and his other relationships appear to be just as solid as anyone else's.

"The Black Dahlia" is a different thing entirely. It's a real noir, with over the top performances (did Hilary Swank really need to play Katharine Hepburn?) and a dark mood. Like "Hollywoodland" this flick also examines a real death, the famous murder of Elisabeth Short (Mia Kirshner). Unlike "Hollywoodland" this movie is based on a James Ellroy novel and has Hilary Swank naked. ("Hollywoodland" has Diane Lane in a towel which is enough to make you wonder why Reeves was complaining, but still...).The movie has two major problems. A major plot point is that Madeleine Linscott (Swank) looked a lot like Short. Uh, No. At least not in this here movie with Swank and Kirshner, because they really don't look at all alike.

The second problem is just an adaptation issue. The original book had an excellent plot with the two detectives investigating the case and a love triangle and a second murder mystery. They leave just enough of that in this movie to screw it up. Josh Hartnet, Aaron Eckhart and Scarlett Johansson are good in their respective roles, though Ms. Johannson is a bit too young and well-scrubbed to play Kay Lake, the ex-hooker, and Hartnett is not believable as a former pug turned cop (That man has never taken a good shot to the face, though he was supposed to be unbeaten.) Anyway, part of the movie is devoted to the obession Det. Blanchad (Eckhart) has with the Dahlia murders, and the development of the romantic attachment between Lake and Bet. Bucky Bleichert (Hartnett). This story isn't just a second, unconnected b-plot. It winds up being integral to the main plot of who murdered Elisabeth Short. (Being a novel they get to pick a murderer in the movie, unlike the "true" events of "Hollywoodland") There's simply not enough time devoted to that story to make it mesh with the other story at the end. It feels like a cheat.

Brian DePalma does his usual excellent job with the style of the era, of course, Brian DePalma could remake :"The Bad News Bears go to Japan" and turn it into a film noir. If you have Netflix a account, stick 'em in your queue. Otherwise...

Posted by Mike Chary at April 6, 2007 12:43 PM