"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

Rating: 10/10 (9 March 2006)

I first saw Chinatown in my senior year in high school. I simply loved the film. I tend to be a little biased when it comes to noir film anyway, but this film blew me away. The film is set in Southern California and it follows a private investigator by the name of Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson). Gittes is a little crass and rough around the edges but you get the feeling that he is genuinely a good person. A woman, whom says she is Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), although she turns out to be Ida Sessions (Diane Ladd), comes to his office seeking his help because she thinks that her husband Hollis (Darrell Zwerling) is having an affair. Jake decides to investigate and all he sees is Hollis talking with another woman.
Hollis is the chief engineer for the water company who is in a debate about the construction a dam. He refuses to build it on grounds that the dam would not hold. Hollis creates many enemies by refusing to build the dam, mostly farmers. Things are turned upside down when Hollis ends up dead. Jake then decides to investigate Hollis's death, which complicates Jake's life even more. Jake tries to investigate Hollis's death but it just leads him into trouble. Throughout the film, it seems that Jake is in way over his head. He does not really understand what is going on. Eventually his investigation leads him to Noah Cross, a wealthy businessman as well as Evelyn's father. Jake becomes entangled in a destructive web spun by Cross and he ends up learning much more than he ever expected. What Jake uncovers leads him and Evelyn down a dangerous path into Chinatown.
Everyone close to Jake talks about Chinatown as if it were hell. In the Film, there is not much talked about what happened in Chinatown. All we know is that bad things happened there. The last line in the film sums up the characters' view on Chinatown, "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." Chinatown seems to represent all the bad things in the characters' lives. One important aspect to the film would have to be that the entire film is shot from Jake's point of view. Every scene in the film has Jack Nicholson in it. We, as the audience, do not know anything more than what Jake knows. This creates much mystery in the film regarding the entire plot. The film can be quite confusing and it took me more than one viewing to understand it, and I am not even sure I understand it now.
Jake is truly alienated because he had no idea with what he is dealing and we take the ride with him. I found myself trying to figure out what was really going on, unsuccessfully I might add. It is a great film to watch alone or with a whole group and it is a lot of fun watching it with people who have never seen it. Chinatown has great acting, great directing, great writing, great cinematography, and essentially, everything in the film was done well. Such a great film, I recommend it to everyone. Truly, one of those films everybody should see.