You've got to love a film that trusts its audience's intelligence as much as Chinatown does. There are many threads to keep a handle on, and if you aren't paying attention, the story's tapestry could get pretty knotty. Fortunately, even if you don't keep a keen eye on the screen at all times, there is so much to Chinatown--performances, mood, texture, set design, cinematography--that pretty much everyone will come away happy, even if they are scratching their heads at the intricacies of the plot.
Jack Nicholson plays jaded private investigator (is there any other kind in the movies?) Jake Gittes in 1940's Los Angeles. He is just suspicious and clever enough to be successful (unlike prototypes of the genre like Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade, who always seem to be on their last legs) as an adultery investigator. These skills also lead him to uncover a plot involving water supply and land acquisition in L.A.'s desert surroundings. This is surely one of Nicholson's best performances--masterful and controlled. John Huston is superb as the villain, millionaire Noah Cross, whom Jake would love to pin to the misdeeds. Cross fires off some of the movie's best lines ("Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.") Faye Dunaway's aloof, twitchy vulnerability is perfect for her role as Cross's daughter, a tragically flawed femme fatale who knows plenty about corruption of every sort.
The plot is full of surprises, but none are cheap. They all serve the characters and the story's central theme of human frailty and corruption. Best of all, the screenplay is full of clever dialogue and intriguing characters. For all his flaws as a human being, director Roman Polanski has made a film noir that the masters of the genre would be proud to call their own.
