More of a boxing match than a film.

Rating: 10/10 (12 February 2018)

Just like the plot within, this film is deceptive. You go into it thinking that you'll get just another crime drama, and from the beginning it feels like one. Then you see Hollis Mulwray dead in the reservoir, and all of a sudden it feels like you've gotten a body shot from boxing legend Joe Frazier.
The rest of the film is more of a boxing match between you and the film. You think you've got it figured out, you think you're starting to get some shots on it, but then it gives you another body shot that throws all your conceptions out the window.
And the film never lets up, it just keeps going and going and going. The conspiracy and plot gets thicker and deeper, thicker and deeper. Is it Cross? Is is the real Mrs. Mulwray? The only form of relief, of closure you get from the film is from a scene where Mrs. Mulwray describes a girl who she's keeping away from everyone else as both her "daughter and sister" - I'll let you do the math yourself on that one. I personally don't want to think about it.
Not even the end provides closure. Just as you've started to hope for Mrs. Mulwray and start to relax knowing she's gotten away from a seemingly mentally deranged Mr. Cross, a pistol report rings out and the horn of her car starts to sound.
"Forget about it, it's Chinatown" Jake Gittes is told by his partner as they walk away into the darkness of the night. After seeing the debauchery, the conspiracy, and the crime present in the film, it's almost like he's inviting the audience to "forget about it" as well.