Chinatown

Cast:
Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston


Director : Roman Polanski
Year :1974
imdb score : 8.5/10 imdb rank:#59
Language: English



Plot:

Chinatown , perhaps acclaimed director Roman Polanski’s finest movie. It’s a classic movie, and it’s highly regarded for a good reason. It’s well-crafted, engaging cinema with a great eye for detail.

Jack Nicholson plays Jake Gittes, a cynical wisecracking private eye with a past. A former police officer in Los Angeles, where he still works, he is hired by one Mrs. Mulwray, played by Diane Ladd, to spy on her husband and produce proof of his affair. Jake gets the proof, which somehow winds up on the front page of the local newspaper.

The next day, another woman, played by Faye Dunaway, shows up in his office and demands to know if Jake remembers ever meeting her before. When Jake assures her he has never met her, she reveals that she is the real Mrs. Mulwray and therefore, by his own admission, she could never have hired him to spy on her husband. Her lawyer serves him with some legal documents with the comment he will wait for the reply from Jake’s attorney.

Worried about his reputation in what he refers to as a small town (the movie takes place during the 1930s), Jake decides he needs to get to the bottom of things and fast. His investigations slowly peel back layers of deceit and untangle a very snarled web of intrigue and secrets with everything leading up to a fateful meeting in L.A.’s Chinatown.

The way in which the mystery is gradually revealed, with every answer leading to further questions, is heightened by the directing and editing. The camera work is simple and elegant, with a minimum of shots compensated for by fluidity and efficiency.

Reviewed by Mr.Varun:

(varunchandru@gmail.com)