Wow! I never believed I would be saying this about one of DePalma's movies, but here it goes: the is the worst movie he has ever made. Some of this was adapted from Ellroy's 1987 novel of the same name, but all in all this movie sucked. There were too many pieces of the puzzle that tried to fit together but just couldn't. Also it leaves you with asking a lot more questions after the movie than before seeing the movie. You are introduced to characters that have no relevance to the story or do hot make sense as to why they are there. All in all this movie is just one giant mess. I had been intrigued about the Elizabeth Short murder a couple of weeks ago when the Sunday paper I read had an insert that was a reprint from 1947 about the killing of the Black Dahlia. I figured this movie would be shot much more darkly than what I actually did see. But really the movie was just one giant collage: different pieces of the puzzle that you could fit together to express a theme, but as a story it fell far short. My advice: wait for DVD.