I was quite looking forward to the Black Dahlia since I enjoyed LA Confidential a great deal. I haven’t watched LA Confidential since it came out so I wonder if my impressions of it would change based on the Black Dahlia. Much of what happened in the Black Dahlia reminded me very much of the pattern of plot twists from LA Confidential. It makes me wonder if watching LA Confidential now, I’d be more disappointed in it as a film. I suppose the only way to test that would be to watch it again.

Generally, I was disappointed that the Black Dahlia murder seemed to be a bit of an afterthought for the film. It’s only natural that the film focus more on the investigators, which it did. There’s a love triangle waiting to cause trouble for the investigators… but it never really takes off into the expected drama. It’s sad, since there’s plenty of opportunity for good character drama… the film just never makes use of any of those opportunities. And, what it does act on comes across very flat. No power to the characters’ involvement, leaving you with no reason to care what they’re up to.

A couple days ago I caught Hollywoodland which I’d been curious to see. I never really knew much about George Reeves’ death, or life for that matter. This was a nice look at both, very well done. I’d forgotten that the film was even being released, having been caught up a little more in anticipation for the Black Dalia. That was probably for the best, since I might have been a little more inclined to skip it if I’d noticed ahead of time that Ben Affleck was playing Reeve.