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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Brian De Palma spent three years struggling to get The Black Dahlia made, which helps explain why the movie has the feel of something that was left in the oven too long: It's both overcooked and undernourishing. Read more
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: Despite some weaknesses, The Black Dahlia remains curiously fascinating. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The Black Dahlia, set in the 1940s, exists to make L.A. Confidential look like God's gift to noir by comparison. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The Black Dahlia is an essay in incoherence. The confusion wouldn't matter if there were any feeling onscreen, but the blood and innards seem missing from the movie, too. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Director Brian De Palma will probably take the rap for this tepid noir, but the real culprits are Josh Hartnett and Scarlett Johansson, red-hot lovers in life but (as ever) gorgeous stiffs on-screen. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: In The Black Dahlia, narrative strands tangle and wither, and minor characters clutter the plot. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: As the plot becomes more convoluted, the tone more overripe and the performances heedlessly over-the-top, the picture digs its own film noir grave -- all look and no substance. Read more
Nathan Rabin, AV Club: The pairing of Ellroy and De Palma proves a marriage made in hardboiled heaven. Read more
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: The best you can say about The Black Dahlia: For people who like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing they will like. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Since The Black Dahlia more or less tells the story of an actress, a heinously murdered one at that, it makes sense that the first thing you notice about this so-so adaptation of James Ellroy's novel is the shoddy acting. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Despite some amusing distractions, watching the big picture coalesce is not unlike watching someone complete a jigsaw puzzle. It all comes together eventually, but you already saw the image on the box. Read more
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Dahlia seethes with atmosphere, and Hollywood's underbelly is always worth an ogle. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: There are some virtuoso moments (the discovery of the mutilated corpse is extremely well done and blessedly ungraphic), but overall the result is much less than prime De Palma. Read more
Michael Booth, Denver Post: The zoot suits and fedoras look great, but without a script or hard-eyed private detective in sight, it's merely a production designer's exercise. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: If you like any of the lead actors, don't go see this movie. If you like good movies, don't go see this movie. If you're a steady customer at Helga's House of Pain, this one's for you. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's an old-fashioned noir made in the gallows-smirk spirit of L.A. Confidential. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: It's easier to navigate the highway system of modern L.A. than keep track of the ever-shifting tone and direction of The Black Dahlia, and the cast appears at least as perplexed as we are. Read more
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Such a heinous crime would seem ideal for the man who gave us Scarface, but Mr. De Palma uses the murder as a springboard for pretentious social commentary and garish exercises in camp. Read more
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: Swank's character and her performance are good enough to merit a movie of their own, instead of serving as fourth wheel to this lifeless menage a trois. Read more
Gene Seymour, Newsday: In reaching for tragic grandeur and psychological complexity, the movie takes on a lot of baggage that it can't quite carry. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A wrongheaded collaboration between two opposites that has too little of James Ellroy's mad passion and too much of Brian De Palma's irresponsible style. Read more
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The convoluted plot would be exhausting even if it were believable. It isn't. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Mr. De Palma and his collaborators have been unable to translate Mr. Ellroy's depth of feeling into cinematic equivalents. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The Black Dahlia is a NASCAR race all but ended by a spectacular wreck on the next-to-last lap. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is far from one of the director's better efforts and should be avoided by all those who are not sworn De Palma boosters. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: With the exception of Aaron Eckhart, De Palma's actors can't live up to the period or the atmosphere. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: There's more moral weight in one paragraph of James Ellroy's somber 1987 novel The Black Dahlia than in all 121 minutes of Brian De Palma's florid, sprawling, self-satisfied film version. Read more
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: Such a shame that The Black Dahlia collapses into a gruesome pile of steaming camp in the last half hour. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: No wonder The Black Dahlia has the suffocated tint of a face starved for oxygen -- this isn't film noir, it's film bleu. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Black Dahlia wilts from a surfeit of incident and a shortage of credibility, owing to a script by Josh Friedman that eventually turns to soap and performances that approach the hilarity of a Guy Maddin melodrama. Read more
Ben Walters, Time Out: Ellroy's prose crawls into characters' secret hearts and under the reader's skin, but its foetid horrors become kitschy here, the script too streamlined and the lead performances too shallow to dredge the story's depths. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: What it accomplishes with its stunning cinematography and set design is undercut by a lack of coherence. Read more
Todd McCarthy, Variety: A literally ripping good yarn is undercut by some lackluster performances and late-inning overripe melodrama. Read more
J. Hoberman, Village Voice: There are moments when The Black Dahlia projects a spectral world, but its ghosts in broad daylight are elusive at best. Read more
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Despite genius-level contributions from cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and art director Dante Ferretti, the handsome film is almost abusively murky, trafficking in difficult-to-follow plot manipulations, arbitrary twists and mumbled dialogue. Read more