Well knit thriller

Rating: 7/10 (14 March 2013)

Blame it on the characters that Nicholson played in the Shining and One Flew over the Cuckoo's nest or the fact that I had seen Shutter Island some time back, I had made up my mind that the whole movie was a setup designed to keep Gittes from going crazy. Many characters felt out of their minds and peculiar. The reference to the curse of Chinatown made me think that the whole thing had happened once before. When I realized at the end that it wasn't the case, I started thinking of the movie as a whole. I felt the movie was very neatly put together with bits and pieces of the puzzle being shared with the viewer as the plot thickens and goes deep. I did feel that the movie invoked the Deus Ex Machina some time towards the end when the plot had become too full of irrelevant details. The character of Mrs.Mullway is intriguing and lends the story an unpredictable touch that it needs every now and then. Jack Nicholson has put in a sterling performance that holds the movie together and keeps the viewer captivated. It would have been bloody brilliant though had the whole thing been a setup. Sigh.