Welcome to Chinatown (You've Been Warned)

Rating: 10/10 (9 July 2007)

With "Chinatown," Roman Polanski did for the detective crime genre what Todd Haynes did for the Douglas Sirk melodrama in "Far from Heaven." Polanski created something that was partly an homage to all of those delightfully atmospheric noirs of the 1940s, but went beyond that to deconstruct some of the genre's conventions. Rather than simply making a 1974 film that imitated a film noir from the 40s, Polanski instead made a 1940s film noir infused with the cultural demons of 1974 America.
The plot is byzantine and confusing, as any good crime thriller plot should be. But true to the genre, the plot doesn't matter as much as the rotten underbelly of corruption and violence that the plot exposes. No director can do atmosphere (especially rotten atmosphere) as well as Polanski, and he's at his best here. Jack Nicholson gives maybe the best performance of his career as detective Jake Gittes, a hard-boiled seen-it-all tough guy who isn't quite tough enough for the nastiness he uncovers; Faye Dunaway is the elusive and beautiful object of his obsession; and John Huston gives a frightening performance as a monster in everyday clothing. The film is magnificently shot and scored, and manages to evoke the look and style of an older time period without feeling dated.
A mesmerizing and fantastic film.
Grade: A+