Cinema: Inconvenient storylines

The Black Dahlia is beautiful to look at, but it gets bogged down with confusing storylines and a plethora of characters. On the other hand, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth argues the Green case with deceptive simplicity, says Declan Burke

Despite their cinematic feel, the novels of James Ellroy don't really lend themselves to movie adaptations. Intricately plotted, intensely narrated and teeming with characters, the novels are the antithesis of the time-constrained A-to-B narrative of a film. LA Confidential was the movie equivalent of Johnson's dog walking on its hind legs: shorn of at least half its back-story, the miracle was not that the story adapted to the screen so well, but that it worked at all.

Set in LA in 1946, The Black Dahlia (16s) takes as its starting point the true story of a young woman discovered on waste ground, her body disembowelled and severed in half. Old friends, ex-sparring partners and now detectives with the LAPD, Bucky Bleichert (Josh Hartnett) and Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart) are assigned to the case. As the ghoulish nature of the murder grips the public's attention, the pair come under increasing pressure to find the psychopath responsible; but with the vicious ex-pimp of Lee's live-in lover Kay (Scarlett Johansson) getting out of prison soon, Lee has other things on his mind. As for Kay, she has Bucky on her mind; but Bucky has become obsessed with heiress Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank), a young woman with a taste for the seedy side of life and who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Black Dahlia.

Shot in sepia tones, this is a beautifully detailed homage to the classic film noir of the 1940s and 1950s; it owes as much to Chinatown as LA Confidential in terms of its evocation of an authentic mood and atmosphere. But while those movies boasted at times bewilderingly labyrinthine plots, they at least repaid careful attention: the fact that director Brian De Palma continues to pile on exposition and introduce new characters with 10 minutes to go indicates how confusing the story is. And while the actors certainly look the part of 1940s molls, hoodlums and crooked cops, they lack – with the notable exception of the underused Eckhart – a sense of authority that might draw us into their emotional orbit. That the most intriguing character is the Black Dahlia (Mia Kirshner), seen here in black-and-white screen-tests and crude stag movies, tells its own tale.

On the other hand, An Inconvenient Truth (G), a film of Al Gore lecturing students on climate change, has a deceptive simplicity. Laced with personal anecdotes and understated humour ("I'm Al Gore. I used to be the next President of the United States"), his stark presentation of facts and figures on the impact of global warming is a gripping narrative. Once his 'green' credentials are established, Gore easily and persuasively picks holes in the arguments of the naysayers and cynics, illustrating the extent of climate change, the damage already done, and the potential for catastrophe if environmental issues don't become a priority for the world's governments. The science might be dumbed down but it is certainly accessible, with the result that An Inconvenient Truth is one of the most compelling movies of the year.

The Black Dahlia ***

An Inconvenient Truth ****