Let me start saying that i really tried to like this film. DeNiro is one of my favorite actors, and is an excellent actor, so is Duvall, but...that's impossible to like this film. It's too bad for anyone to like it. I have a highlight for the ripped-off marriage scene from the Godfather. It's perhaps the nicest thing that i've to say about this film, if that is saying too much. The plot is fairly nonsense. It goes around, comes back, and keep doing circles, but never go ahead until the last ten minutes, when the film suddenly ends. It's also one of these films which don't has any conflicts, and a thriller without any conflicts isn't a thriller. In fact, it looked more as a drama film with a crime investigation theme. Better, a nouvelle Vaguè film with a crime investigation. However, a crucial difference between this film and the conventional nouvelle vague, apart from the superior story- telling, it is while the latter is joking about the films, this one is the joke itself. The character development is also an abomination, but i'm sure that it isn't even worth mentioning. The characters just pop out and start doing things without any solid reason. So don't waste your time and skip this film. You aren't losing nothing. 3.7/10

This was a really good little film. It takes a look at the Black Dahlia killing but it mainly focuses on the relationships between the people. Even though they look and figure out who the killer is, it's a secondary part of the story. The Black Dahlia part in this movie is not accurate to the facts from the real case but it's not really suppose to be. Catholic Church corruption, prostitution and murder all combined for a really quiet meaningful little flick.Long before L.A. Confidential, this film made light of the massive corruption and lack of caring in the L.A. police department back in it's bad years from the 20's through the 50's. You'll be glad you didn't live there back in those days.No action but high on drama/thriller twists and turns. If you like L.A. Confidential, see this. I'm willing to bet, you'll like it.

Based loosely on the famous Black Dahlia murder case, "True Confessions" revolves around two brothers, played by Robert Duvall (fresh off his great performance in "The Great Santini") and Robert De Niro (fresh off an equally great performance in "Raging Bull"), seeking atonement for their past sins.Set in Los Angeles during the late 1940s, De Niro plays an ambitious priest who spends the film establishing mutually beneficial relationships with corrupt clergymen, gangsters and construction moguls. Preaching the purity of the eternal soul whilst helping scoundrels hide their sins, De Niro is well aware of his hypocrisy, but deludes himself by maintaining that it's ultimately all for the greater good of the church.Tom, a local police detective, faces a similar dilemma. Himself touched by sin (he was once found guilty of police corruption), Tom becomes determined to solve the murder of a young girl who was found dumped in the Hollywood Hills. Solve the murder and absolve his sins, that's the way he sees it. And of course, his brother holds a vital piece of evidence. A piece of evidence which he must give up in order to redeem himself.There are a lot of interesting themes here – the links between business and religion, wounded souls searching for forgiveness, the tale of a city built on corruption, victim as sacrificial lamb, the way those in high places buy their angelic images through politics or church – but for the most part we've seen this stuff done better elsewhere."Godfather 3", for example, better dealt with the ties between Church and Mafia, "Bad Lieutenant" better dealt with a sin-stained Catholic seeking redemption by solving a crime and "Chinatown" is a both a better mystery and a better tale of a city founded on corruption. Of course today the gold standard for this sort of panoramic film-noir is the HBO series "The Wire", in which corruption is not only a way of life but a long accepted means of survival. In terms of shear scope, "The Wire" renders all these films outdated.But at the heart of "True Confessions" is the Black Dahlia murder and the romance and mystery it somehow still manages to exude. The most famous murder in Hollywood history, the crime has popped up in countless novels and films, the best being James Elroy's "Black Dahlia", partially about the murder of his own mother, and Brian De Palma's underrated adaptation of Elroy's novel.7.5/10 – Though a lesser film noir, the film works whenever De Niro and Duvall are together, and the cinematography by Owen Roizman has some appropriately atmospheric moments (he avoids golden-brown nostalgia and goes instead for sunlit sleaze). Worth one viewing.

Terrible film which gives another awful impression of the Catholic church filled with corruption and violence.Robert De Niro as the monsignor certainly gives that high position a bad name. A priest who visits the track and associates himself with undesirables is certainly not a positive role model for the church.In the film, De Niro's brother is played by Robert Duvall, a cop with an ax to grind.We hear stories about companies getting contracts to build churches and schools. There is murder along the way. Charles Durning really adds to this mess in the scene where he is made Catholic lay-man of the year and then goes on a tirade against Duvall,when the latter accuses him of wrong-doing.The Duvall character, as the policeman, is not exactly a study of a choir boy either.The movie is nasty. No one is really depicted as nice. Nearly everyone is frequenting a prostitute played by Rose Gregorio. She turns in a nice supporting performance but was her demise a suicide or murder?