Sunday, August 5, 2012

Summer of Movies #9: Chinatown

Today's film is one that made Roman Polanski and Jack Nicholson's careers, a movie that is considered one of the greatest crime drama's of all time. This is...


PLOT
J.J Gittes is a private investigatory hired by Evelyn Mulwray to look into her husband, Hollis Mulwray, owner of L.A.'s water supply. When Gittes thinks his investigation is over, Hollis turns up dead supposedly drowned, during a long drought. Gittes suspects murder and starts going deeper into this investigation. But he soon finds that he's gotten into something more devious than he could ever imagine


PROS
Jack Nicholson is one of my favorite actors, and he doesn't disappoint here. He has that same charm and snarckyness that made Nicholson a household name in the first place.

The script by Robert Towne is amazing. The dialogue is very well done, and the mystery is so well woven that you'll never get lost as long as you pay attention, and believe me you will pay attention

Roman Polanski's direction is also great. The film has some great shots and a lot of the scenes are one takes, which is somewhat impressive in itself.

Polanski decides the shot the few fight scenes very realistically. No one ever goes over the top with their fighting, it's raw and real, and the camera never cuts, showing all the details. It puts you in a state of mind that this is real-life, and it rarely steers into ridiculous territory

This movie is a slow-burn kinda film, but it never lost my attention.


CONS
I got nothin'.


CONCLUSION
This is a great movie with great performances and a great mystery that keeps you engaged the whole 2 hours. Tack on the fact that it has a shocking twist you'll never see coming and one of the best ending lines I've seen in a while, Chinatown leaves you thinking. I highly recommend this thriller classic.


RATING
RUN TO!


   


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