Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Hillerman, Perry Lopez, Burt Young, John Huston
(Warning: prepare for major Jackgasms throughout this review).
Yes, I'm reviewing a Roman Polanski film. Kiss my ass, the guy's good.
I've been wanting to see this movie for so long and I finally got to see it last night when my mom rented it from Blockbuster. Jack looks so different from the way he did in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest! And he's hotter too. *sigh* Jack, you are so sexy...*drool*
.......................................................................................................................................................
Um, hi, guys! Sorry about that.
Ahem...now on to the film.
The film centers around private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson). He is hired by a woman who claims that her husband, Hollis Mulwray, has been cheating on her. Gittes begins to follow Mulwray but does not encounter him with any mistresses. Then one day, Gittes catches Mulwray with his young female friend and snaps some pics.
The story takes an interesting twist here. Gittes is confronted by the real Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), who sues him. Gittes realizes that he has been set up by a woman pretending to be Mrs. Mulwray, and to earn his reputation back, he must investigate who hired him and why. Gittes tells Evelyn that he did not know that he was involved in her personal life and she agrees to drop the charges.
Gittes goes to the Oak Pass reservoir to look for Hollis but instead encounters police Lt. Lou Escobar (Perry Lopez), a former friend, who is recovering a body--Hollis Mulwray's.
After more investigation, Gittes ends up at the Department of Water and Power (after getting his nose busted by some goons) and learns that Noah Cross (John Huston) is Evelyn's father, and that he and Hollis were business partners.
Gittes visits Noah Cross, who hires him to find Katherine, Hollis Mulwray's mistress. Gittes visits an orange grove in the San Fernando Valley and gets beat up by some landowners (how do you like THAT, Cesar Chavez?) that claim that the water department is demolishing their water tanks and poisoning their wells.
Reading the obituary on the way back with Evelyn, who comes to rescue him, Gittes realizes that one of the senior citizens at the Mar Vista Inn died two weeks ago but somehow bought property a week ago. He also realizes that the purpose of this whole thing is to irrigate the rural valley, not to lessen the burden on taxpayers.
So Gittes and Evelyn end up doing it in what would probably be the lamest sex scene ever had it not been for Jack Nicholson. Evelyn gets a phone call and tells Gittes to stay at her place and wait and to trust her, and does our intrepid hero do that? Of course not.
Gittes trails Evelyn and sees her comforting Katherine. Returning home, bushwacked, Gittes gets a call from Escobar from Ida Sessions' house. Gittes reluctantly goes over there and finds that Sessions has been brutally murdered.
Returning to Evelyn's mansion, Gittes finds a man's eyeglasses in the pond and confronts Evelyn about them. She then confesses that Katherine is her sister and her daughter, admitting to incest with Noah when she was 15. Gittes arranges for the two to escape to Mexico with his friend Curly (Burt Young, not Jerry Howard. I know, it was a big disappointment to me too).
In Chinatown, Gittes is arrested for extortion because Escobar thinks that he and Evelyn killed Hollis. Evelyn escapes with Katherine and the police open fire and Evelyn dies. The End. Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.
THE REVIEW: As you can probably tell, this is a very complicated and intricate plot. I found it extremely hard to follow. And something that's funny is that the film has almost nothing to do with Chinatown, except for a few side mentions and the final scenes. Jack Nicholson is really good, especially when he's forced to slap Evelyn around a bit. I loved it because we almost never get to see Jack get physical (I mean, let's be honest - as much I love him, he's not exactly James Bond material), but here he gets to beat people up! It's so cool!
All in all, I give this film 3.5 stars. Jack gave it the big boost it needed, and it was a fun little film noir adventure. The only minus is a hard-to-follow (but still very well done!) plot line.
Trailer
No comments:
Post a Comment