complex noir film and a masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (11 April 2018)

Directed by Roman Polanski and stars Jack Nicholson as a private eye who is hired to investigate and expose her husband Hollis Mulwray but soon finds out that the woman who hired him was not his husband and finds him murdered it becomes something much bigger and much more complicated. To start things off the cast is fantastic in this movie, Jack Nicholson is magnificent especially his subtle acting, for example after Mrs. Mulwray saves him from being shot, the way he looks at her indicates its the first sign he is starting to fall in love her. There is also another scene in the movie where Jack shows brilliance in his subtle acting where he is checking up on Mrs. Mulwray because he feels something suspicious is going on, while he is driving just the look on his face shows that he is tired and he has been through a lot through out the day. Faye Dunaway is fantastic in this film as well and seeing her and Jack work together in this movie was amazing. Just like the acting the movie itself is also very subtle, the theme is not just straight up in your face it does require some thinking. This movie is also very good at foreshadowing for instance when Jake and Mrs. Mulwray are at the restaurant she says that she has had affairs but she would not call it cheating on her husband, that is indicating her father Noah Cross has raped her which is revealed later on in the movie. Noah Cross is a very disturbing villain the more I think about it because he is an old person who has raped his daughter and killed his son-in-law/former business partner and the actor who played him did a really good job. The movie is able to not feel messy even when a lot of things are going on and instead feels contained. The scene where he talks about his past in chinatown I felt like that could have been a movie by itself because in his past he talks about how he tries to protect this woman and later she dies, the same thing happens in the film where the woman who he is trying to protect dies and gets killed, he tries to do the right thing throughout the movie but in the end he is vulnerable and can't win and it was unavoidable and Jake is back to where he was before. The message of this movie is not a positive one but it is honest and it is great to sometimes see a movie that is not perfectly wrapped with a bow and everything is all good. Overall this movie is a must see and I will give this a definite 10 out of 10.