The Black Dahlia turned out to be even worse than I imagined it could be. Had it not been for the lovely date I had, I would have been angry.<br /><br />The Black Dahlia is twenty-first century film noir. It is miraculous all the actors made it through the filming without lung cancer. I've never seen more people smoke in one film.<br /><br />Josh Hartnett is just too boyish looking to pull of the role he played. He is miscast.<br /><br />Aaron Eckhart is guilty of over acting and over acting, over and over.<br /><br />Scarlet Johanson seemed to act very little and I feel she was miscast as well.<br /><br />The brightest spot, in a long, tedious trudge, is Hilary Swank. She is cast to perfection and portrays the nefarious Madeleine, deliciously.<br /><br />Alas, the poor Mia Kirshner. Her performance of Elizabeth Short is so forgettable, it may work in her favor.<br /><br />According to IMDb, the budget was $50,000,000. If I had my druthers, I would have rather seen 10 $5,000,000 independent art house movies.<br /><br />The Black Dahlia appears to be another example of the Hollywood suits' inability to invest huge sums of money intelligently. I suppose next it will be "The Return of the Black Dahlia".