The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

A private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder. As much as i love and respect Jack Nicholson this movie just didn't do it for me i mean it really did not do it especially the fact that the man has to spend half of the movie with a bandage on his freaking nose and it just didn't work for me i'm really sorry but on the positive side the acting was good and the direction as well but the pacing dragged alot and the storyline was also not that much of an interest to me and definitely not that good. (5/10)

Life: A grim and sordid mess in which the predators among us prevail. That is the dark message of this deeply atmospheric tale of private eye Gittes (Jack Nicholson) and Evelyn, the rich but emotionally moribund woman he tries to save (Faye Dunaway). Gittes's dialogue is great and Evelyn's every gesture speaks to her traumatic past. Their chemistry offers Evelyn perhaps the only moments of joy she has ever experienced and her smile in bed offers the scarcest of glimmers of hope in a world that is rotten to its core. Maybe the message here is that human connection offers a moment of succor in a hopelessly corrupted terrain. We're lucky if we stumble upon it. But it surely won't last. The plot here is complicated and difficult to follow at times, but well worth the effort. It is beautifully accompanied by a sultry jazz-trumpet score. Poor Evelyn. She made an effort to fight back. One shudders for the child she fails to save.

Every movie lover knows about the brilliance of Roman Polanski's "Chinatown". If you are reading these reviews you havent seen it yet, which positions you in a place at the gates of heaven. You have not entered heaven yet, but you will once you decide to walk through the gates and watch "Chinatown". I am rather jealous of you, because the first time is special, although the great thing about movies is, that the most wonderful stories CAN be relived time and again. "Chinatown¨ is up there with the all time greatest movies of american cinema history. The absolute pinnacle of genius.That must be enough praise to get you curious. My real advice would be not to read any further. Not my review, nor anyone elses. I just wanted to make sure with my first paragraph that you wont make the unforgivable mistake of passing this movie by. You havent lived without having seen it...The story takes place in L.A. in the thirties, in the middle of a period of drought there is a big conflict about how to get more water to the city. A previous water reservoir had collapsed and killed 500 innocent L.A. citizens and now they plan to built another one with the same faults that were present in the earlier disaster. Enter Jack Nicholson as a private investigator who at first gets an assignment that seemingly has nothing to do at all with this disaster which cost so many people's lives. He just has to research if a husband is cheating on his wife. What seems an innocent and tedious job, soon becomes a life threatening case, when Jack Nicholson finds out more than he is supposed to know about the powers that be, that want to build this risky dam, come hell or high water...The story truly is very intelligent, suspenseful and emotionally devastating and has won many awards. The number of awards is mindboggling so I wont start listing them here, but it suffices to say that everything, and I truly mean everything, could be and has been awarded about this movie. I just want to restrain myself, in order to limit the length of this review. No I cant. I just GOT TO mention everything. I'll keep it "short". The acting. Let's start with that. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and John Huston truly play the roles of their lives. Images so pure and intense that I can see them by just mentioning the name "Chinatown". The photography by John A. Alonzo (Scarface) is breathtaking. Almost every scene is shot in the magic hours, when the sun rises or sets and delivers shadows and golden colors that only last for some 30 minutes every day. All the images are bathing in this glow of early sunset. Almost every scene could be a poster, that is how gorgeous the photography is. Finally the music score by Jerry Goldsmith, who is a music genius. With a minimum of instruments he creates another "leading role", because his music is intertwined with the heart of this movie. Yes, his music score is so powerful and sublime that it is unimaginable to think of "Chinatown" without these dissonant piano string chords and gorgeous dreamlike trumpet themes. Jerry Goldsmith's music scores are even being used after his passing, every year till this very day, movies are released with themes from earlier scores by this brilliant composer.In the end we have to thank Director Roman Polanski for his genius in bringing all these talents together and creating something which will be seen by generations to come. In a time capsule of movie history Roman Polanski's masterpiece will shine as a star among the very greatest that american cinema has ever achieved.

Rarely is a film, rarely is a screenplay so flawless and excellent as it is in Roman Polanski's Chinatown. From the first shot, up to the ending. And my god, what an ending. Along with the Reunion from Shawshank, I can't remember a better, more fitting, touching, yet even disturbing film ending. Chinatown is one of the most wonderfully acted, ingeniously clever written and excellently directed films of all time. A classic for all ages: 10/10