Chinatown (1974) - dir. Roman Polanski - Movie Review Example

The film’s story line Ladd (Evelyn Mulwray) hires Gittes, a private investigator, to conduct marriage surveillance on Hollis Mulwray, Ladd’s husband. Gittes follows Hollis’ moves, takes pictures of him with a young woman, and hears him oppose the development of new reservoir that makes the headline of the following newspaper. A beautiful woman confronts Gittes in his office; she claims to be the real Evelyn Mulwray and he can anticipate a lawsuit. He notices it is a set up and Gittes wants to establish the person behind it and his investigations guides him to Mulwray’s drowned body.

Gittes suspects murder, he investigates and realizes that every night, huge quantities of water are released from the reservoir, and the land is almost dry. Gittes realizes that Hollis was once a business partner of Noah Cross (John Huston), his father. Noah Cross promises to give Gittes a huge amount if he succeeds in looking for Hollis’ missing girlfriend. Ending and twists in the film As Gittes investigates the missing of Hollis’ girlfriend, he discovers that many orange groves have transformed their ownership in San Fernando.

When Gittes visits San Fernando Valley, he is confronted and beaten by angry landowners who thought that he was from the water department that had been destroying and poisoning their water reservoirs to force them out of their land. Gittes finds out that Mulwray was killed when he knew that the new water tank would be used to irrigate newly bought properties. Gittes unravels a murder drama, which looks to be linked to the water reservoirs in San Fernando Valley. The conspiracy that Gittes unravels does not fit a real noir crime film because there is the absence of high-speed loot, no gems, and jewels.

Instead, Cross and other people are planning to dry up the San Fernando Valley by moving water to another direction in order to purchase the land cheaply, and then re-divert water back into the land so that the land becomes fertile, and sell it at a higher price. The central question is how Evelyn Mulwray fits in all these activities and who is this mysterious woman associated with Mulwray. Characters in the movie include: Jack Nicholson (Jake Gittes), Darrell Zwerling (Hollis Mulwray), Faye Dunaway (Evelyn Mulwray), and John Huston (Noah Cross).

The characters in the film are credible and well written. These effects are executed well in that every conversation is memorable and well drafted. For instance, the choice of John Huston for performing the role of Cross was an informed one in that he perfectly understands his role - an amoral person whose good nature cannot hide the issue of corruption that follows him in the entire film. From the start of the film, Cross is the movie’s villain and one of Chinatown mesmerizing denizens. Faye Dunaway fits her role in that she plays Evelyn with the right amount of passion and ambiguity, which gives the viewers the impression that she is the femme fatale.

The movie had slower pace than expected, but apart from this small issue, it was flawless. The plot of the film is enormous, involving, and interesting. The film’s pace, although not too fast, is acceptable since there are scenes and sequence that are really exciting and intense. Why the film does well The film is good in the sense that when the plot does not pick up well, Roman Polanski keeps viewers’