Colorful Film Noir: just add water

Rating: 10/10 (19 March 2006)

Roman Polanski has a way in all of his films of luring you into a calm, inviting stream, and then forcing you to sink or swim while the stream becomes an aggressive river meandering until it reaches a climatic waterfall.
We meet Jack Gittes (Nicholson) when he is in total control of his world as a private investigator. Gittes, however, has a way of letting his snooping get him into trouble, or from what he better knows it as, Chinatown. When a mysterious woman hires him to investigate a case seeming to revolve around adultery, Gittes falls in over his head in a corrupt scheme surrounded by greedy politicians, eager detectives, and truths that become utter confusion.
Nicholson, supported by a strong supporting cast (Faye Dunaway, John Huston), brings his character such dimension and realism, that we all scratch our noises (watch the movie and you'll know what I mean) when we join him in his investigation.
Robert Towne has penned a story as deep as the pacific, but all the while leaving your assumptions as dry as the Northeastern Valley. You are confused from the first twenty minutes, just as Polanski and Towne want, and any assumption you have will be wrong. As Towne said, "Chinatown is a state of mind," we spend the entire film in Chinatown without physically going there. Not to worry, however, as the climax easily takes every thread of the story and ties it together, answering any questions the audience might have had, in a way that will make film noir buffs stay seated on their couch, hours after the credits, in awe of this masterpiece.
Chinatown has been and always will be a classic of twentieth century cinema. Anyone who is even slightly interested in the high art of film should poke their nose into this one.