| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A- |
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| Visuals: |
A- |
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O.K. not Chinese and Nicholson’s in a great film
by TonyM (movies profile)
Mar 1, 2008
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1 people found this review helpful
Roman Polanski directs this modern film noir masterpiece ‘Chinatown’; Nicholson plays J.J ‘Jake’. Gittes as Private Detective and ex-police man. Jake (Nicholson) is cleverer than your average P.I. and likes to move with the times. Instead of sitting by a car all night to see when it moves (The Car) you simply put a used pocket watch (Or a cheap one) under the wheel so when it does eventually moves the watch is broken at the time the car moved. In ‘Chinatown’ even written by Robert Townes, the film is blessed by a wise array of talented and odd-ball character actors; John Huston who plays Noah Cross (the Water Billionaire or he desperately wants to be one).Huston is playing the deviant father of Faye Dunaway who plays Evelyn Cross Mulwray; with a twinkle in her eye leaving the viewer her own reasons behind her actions. Earlier in the film Hollis Mulwray played well by the straight laced Darrell Zwerling. Mulwray has found a discrepancy between the waters present drought troubles and Noah Cross’s reasons for building yet another massive reservoir at the cities expense. Mulwray is killed off by persons unknown before he can go public with his suspicions.
The atmosphere of the film is not built on clever lightning or shooting action scenes in shadow or in the dark; it is just Polanski at his paranoid best, keeping everyone distrusting everyone else. Polanski also plays the thug that slices a chunk out of Nicholson nose letting it bleed profusely. Perry Lope as Lieutenant Lou Escobar and his partner (Who hates Jake deeply) Detective Loach played well by Richard Bakalyan, are always one step behind Jake and they believe he holding back vital information. He’s not keeping anything back; he is just a quicker thinker than the Police. As well as the story-line involving the water shortage, there is also something strange going on with the relationship between Dunaway and Huston (Noah Cross).
The editing is excellent I’m beginning to appreciate the skills involved after watching a documentary about editing, the locations in the desert look like they haven’t felt water for decades. The whole film has a strange hot and atmospheric feel to it. |
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