Chinatown

Chinatown, filmed in 1974, is the first noir we've watched with the introduction of color. It's amazing how a little thing like that can change the entire feel of a film. With our black and white films, I expected a fair bit of slowness and nonsensical plot elements. With the simple addition of the light spectrum, I hold the movie to a higher standard. Chinatown meets the challenge through most of it's length, but falls flat on it's face in the home stretch.

This is the story of JJ 'Jake' Gitte (played by Jack Nicholson!), a private detective with a knack for marriage-related issues. In other words, he catches unfaithful spouses inin the act. He's hired by Evelyn Mulwray to tail her husband Hollis. Jake follows through and snaps a few photos of the husband with a young girl. When the photos hit the press, however, Mrs. Mulwray confronts Jack. Yeah, it seems our unscrupulous hero was duped by another woman. Were you surprised? Then you clearly haven't been watching enough film noir. But wait, there's more! Suddenly, Hollis Mulwray "drowns" in an "accident" by the local reservoir. Then it's off to the races again with another rogue detective dodging both cops and thugs in a mad dash for the truth. And get ready for this truth, folks, because it's a doozy.

Chinatown takes another three out of five for film noir. Mr. Nicholson fills his character fantastically and the many other roles are filled with people who at least know what their doing. This movie could have netted a four for it's decent pacing, better acting, and holy-crap-twists. Why didn't it? It's a solid film right up until the very last minutes. Then it hits you with something you're supposed to believe is an ending. It isn't an ending, it's part of the greater Hollywood scheme to give me a rage-induced heart attack. Seriously, guys? You call that an end? What the crap was that?