Classic neo-noir

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 2014)

One of the penultimate film-noir films and one of the best Jack Nicholson movies as well. Chinatown is a slowly unraveling mystery story at its best, each scene slowly building the suspense, offering hints to the final solution, yet that final twist is there to left us gaping in horror and awe.
The movie's greatest strengths are its iron tight script and its cast. The story takes place in the early 20th century LA, during a time of great drought. J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Nicholson), a private detective of some skill, is hired to spy on one of the players in the so called Water Wars. Not everything goes as planned and Gites finds himself pulled deeper into the mystery, mostly against his will, as it often happens. Along the way he encounters murder, corruption, old feuds, high class women, rich tycoons and misleading answers. It's considered one of the classic film-noir movies for a reason, yet it updates the formula somewhat in good neo-noir fashion by deviating from the old character stereotypes - a welcome change.
Jack Nicholson is also on a roll in this movie. He has been born to play characters such as these and Gites might very well be one of his best. He's everything. Arrogant, sly, quite the ladies man, intelligent, witty, too large for the world and all around bad ass. The rest of the cast are up to the task, with special mention going to old Hollywood legend John Huston, playing one of the water tycoons.
Chinatown is a must see for all ones of detective and mystery stories. It's an all around well-acted, -produced, -directed and -executed film. One of the classics.