The Wasted Dahlia

10 p.m., yesterday. I sit down in the living room, underneath blankets, beside a crackling fire and a sausage dog, a box of cherry chocolates at arm reach, a cup of tea nearby, ready to watch a movie on TV. I flick around and find The Black Dahlia about to begin. Crime film; pretty boy Josh Harnett; 1940s LA. How can it go wrong?

First problem rears its head with Scarlett Johansson's appearance. Is it just me or she's getting worse as an actress as time goes by? Like Angelina Jolie, she seems destined to work the tiny little box she's been placed in, as the femme fatale/cute girlfriend/tragic bombshell. There's nothing beyond the cute, ripe pout. Every scene with her is flat, devoid of its drama, caught up in her self-consciousness.

Because this is Hollywood, gruesome murder is allowed to be graphic, while the characters sexuality is hinted at and quickly removed from the screen as soon as someone's shirt is off. This prudery goes against the era and the place the story is set, literally destroying the best the story has to offer. This is all the more obvious to me because Brasilian soap operas are full of characters getting naked and indulging in semi-pornographic sex scenes; they play out what the population is comfortable with watching on TV. America is not comfortable, for example, with Scarlett Johansson fully naked (or perhaps the producers couldn't afford it?) so we only get hints - which is directly opposite from the rules of the world the character lived in.

Funnily enough, when one of the characters asks the police officer if he wants to fuck her, the Brasilian subtitles are "sleep with". The defence of a people's morals goes both ways? But in a film about amorality, it's a terrible shame that we only get hints out of fear that the rating system will hurt its Box Office performance. Another disappointment is Fiona Shaw, as the disturbed mother, completely wasted in a pantomime role essential to the film, but badly explained (one of the many problems with the screenplay). This film could have been great - the period is captured perfectly - but the only amazing thing about it is Josh Harnett's smooth bum and toned lightweight boxer muscles (but only for those stuck in a farm with no eye candy for miles).