#56 - Chinatown (1974)

Whenever a film tackles a time period set a couple of decades before it, they tend to critique that era qith the current mindset. A couple of days ago I saw The Help, and while it was a great film, I foud Emma Stone's character a little out of place there; she feels like a current day person with a current day mindset that somehow travelled back in time to the 60's and unhappy with the status quo tries to change it. Chinatown, on the other hand, is a 70's film set in the 40's, and it manages to capture the feel of that era perfectly, with little to no input on the then-current mindset. And that is no easy feat.

While Chinatown doesn't have a particularly complex narrative structure, the plot can get a little bit hard to follow. Jack Nicholson plays Jake Gittes, a private investigator who gets a request from Evelyn Mulwray to check on her husband, who has been cheating on her. Turns out this Evelyn was a faker trying to destroy Mr. Mulwray's reputation, who by the way gets murdered and Gittes has to crack the mystery behind it. While the mystery is, like I said, a little too convoluted and I got mixed up more than once, I have to praise it for how well delivered it is.

 

Make sure you're not as sleep-deprived as I was when watching it.

Fuck you, college, waking me up ant 5:30 AM on a Saturday for a two hour class I hate.

The murder case involves Gittes unearthing a scheme to drain water from a plantation, only to place a reservoir nearby for lots of munnies; confilcts over family heritage and even incestual relationships. The way every clue is presented and everything eventually clicks together is fantastic. Chinatown's setting and tone are also spot-on: it genuinely feels like it's the 40's. The characters, the Noir theme, and particulalry the clothing all add up to a great tone without falling into any clichés. It never gets campy or overly romantic.

This idea carries over to the characters: the protagonist is, in Noir fashion, cynical and sarcastic most of the time, but he doesn't fall into the depressive, alcoholic and broke kind of guy we usually see starring these films: he's smart, well-spoken and moderately successful. And come on, it's Jack freaking Nicholson, he delivers the part perfectly. Faye Dunaway's character is also interesting, being needy and fragile at times but being unreliable and suspicious at the same time. The rest of the cast doesn't really stand out that much, but what the hell. With protagonists like this you don't care.

 

He can wear that without looking ridiculous, for fuck's sake. That's quite an accomplishment.

I admit, while I'm not particularly familiar with the Noir genre, this is hands down the film that represents the genre the best: taking it seriously and getting every element right (if you want pseudo-parody the best I can suggest is Grim Fandango). So if neo-noir is what you want, I can't recommend a better film than this one.