270. Chinatown (1974)

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston

Director: Roman Polanski

Running Time: 130 mins

Chinatown is an American film about a private detective who is hired to investigate a man who is suspected of having an affair, however after he is killed in strange circumstances, the detective becomes involved in a very complex murder case.

This was a very interesting film. Created to be a sort of neo-noir film, this was never really going to be the most thrilling or tense film in the world, however it had a great story, which was fascinating to follow, along with some mysterious themes along the way.

This has to be one of Jack Nicholson’s best performances of his career in my opinion. I feel that he has been one of the best actors of the year, if not the best, however in this, the way he played the cunning and suave private detective was very convincing, and due to that, whenever the character got into a spot of bother, I was cheering him on to find a way out.

Also, the end of the film was very clever in tying up all of the loose ends, such as the revelation of the importance of ‘Chinatown’, and the eventual discovery of the killer that they had been searching for all along, which was quite unexpected.

Overall, then, I’ll give this an 8.1, because it was a fascinating film, with a good story, clever twists, and great performances from the actors.