Overall Rank:

Avg. Rating:

# of Ratings:

Genres:

Rating:

Language:

Theater Date:

DVD Release:

Director:

Actors:

Jack Nicholson
Faye Dunaway
John Huston
Diane Ladd
Perry Lopez
James Hong

Like Movie:

Plot Outline:

A private detective, who is investigating an affair, finds himself in the middle of a water problem.

03/31/2012 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

"Chinatown" by Yojimbo

Jack Nicholson stars as J.J. Gittes, a private detective hired to investigate an alleged marital indiscretion but uncovers more than he bargained for including deceit, corruption and murder. Right from the self consciously retro titles, Polanski sets out his stall; to recreate the classic noirs of the 40s and 50s, and a damn fine job he does too. Even to the point of casting legendary director John "The Maltese Falcon" Huston. Nicholson is at the height of his powers as the world weary ex detective and is complimented perfectly by Faye Dunaway with a possibly career best performance as the glamorous yet vulnerable femme fatale. The intelligent script constantly wrong foots you, playing with your assumptions and Polanski's direction is suitably hard boiled, shadowing Gittes as he uncovers ...

Rating of
3.5/4 

08/11/2011 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

Chinatown review

A typical slow-burner for good character development which pays off in the stunning conclusion. Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) receives a call from Mrs. Mulwray to perform a surveillance of his husband, Hollis Mulwray, and his malicious activities. The real Evelyn Cross Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) shows up in his office and plans on suing him for the photos being displayed on the papers. Gittes tries to uncover a mysterious death of Mrs. Mulwray’s husband. Evelyn and Jake become romantically involved though he was being paid to find the killer. Jake investigates San Fernando Valley and Noah Cross (John Huston), who owned the water department. Cross then offers Jake some money to find the mistress of Hollis Mulwray. He discovers the dark history involving Evelyn and her father’s manner of ...

Rating of
3/4 

08/25/2009 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

She's my sister and my daughter!

With "Chinatown," Roman 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 se...

Rating of
4/4