Nothing Is As It Seems In Chinatown

Rating: Null/10 (26 March 2010)

I was quite excited about 'Chinatown' because of the so many great things I had heard about. When the movie started on a slow pace, I was having my doubts whether I would like it. However, this is a layered movie and as the story unfolds, it gets darker and dangerous, and when you look back, you understand that nothing was as it seemed. There are plenty of twist and turns and yet they manage to develop the story without seeming out of place. This is easily one of Polanski's best films. Much of it is a homage to the noire genre but I also see some Kubrick references. The cinematography deserves special mention. I don not consider myself a Jack Nicholson fan but he's very good as detective Gittes determined to seek the truth. John Huston is terrific as Noah. His Noah is the villain of the scariest kind. He appears to be a charming, friendly and basically nice guy but there's a sleazy and greedy monster behind that facade. Yet, for me the star of 'Chinatown' is Faye Dunaway. At first, she seems like your typical film-noire femme fatale type but there is much more to her character and I repeat again that nothing is as it seems, watch a little further