Chinatown

Rating: 9/10 (10 November 2010)

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown. One of the most iconic lines in cinematic history can be found in Roman Polanski's 1974 masterpiece Chinatown.
Chinatown is almost the perfect movie. The direction is outstanding. Polanski knows how to tell a story as good as anyone. The perfect camera angles and the perfect shots are taken as we take a dive in two the mind of J.J. Gittes a private detective who reiterates that he makes a fair living. He is masterfully played by none other that Jack Nicholson who gives one of his best performance that can be ranked alongside his performances in 'The Shining' and 'Cuckoo's Nest' Nicholson gives a very controlled performance. There is no unnecessary shouting or going over the top. He begins to uncover a terrible plot over in L.A. that involves the water department,incest,adultery and Chinatown. Robert Towne wrote this script in the traditional noir way with voice-over and the like but Polanski eliminated all the voice-over so the audience would uncover the mystery as Gittes would and was that a good decision. The movie is an absorbing 2 hour experience as you get completely lost as the plot unravels and more of the mystery unfolds. It is tremendously quotable movie. It has a noir touch to it that is obvious from the overture but the touch is so light that the movie simply floats on this delightful little script. Recently the movie was named on a list of the seven films to see before you die. Well I generally disagree with such lists because it's the apples over oranges thing isn't it. But Chinatown is a brilliant film. The ending is so powerful that it can knock most films out of the water with just that. It leaves you feeling frightened, challenged and with so many questions that you can debate about it for hours on end. And that is what Art really should accomplish. It should encourage discussion and that is what Chinatown does. You can call the movie anything you want but it sure as hell is a piece of art.