Pretentious and over-rated

Rating: 6/10 (25 November 2002)

Spoiler follows.
Actually, the movie is its own spoiler. I just point it out.

On the DVD are comments by writer, director, and producer. The writer says he wrote the screenplay with a happy ending, I suppose like the much superior L.A. Confidential, or like the sublimely weird Wild Side. But the director -- an artiste of insufferable pomposity -- would have none of it. A happy ending was not literary enough for his effete sensibilities, or maybe it would have hurt too much, after the recent brutal murder of his own wife. In any case, he insisted on killing the heroine, and thereby killed his movie for me. R.I.P.
Chinatown is a handsome production, with a great look, and mostly good performances. John Huston is eerily accurate as the evil political boss -- compare his performance to the real-life drug lord in the Colombia segment of Michael Palin's documentary, Full Circle, filmed about 25 years later. But it takes more than isolated elements to make a memorable movie, one worth watching more than once. This film falls apart with a 'thud' at the end, making it an experience I would not want to repeat. 6/10