Chinatown is a see-it-again confirmation of the finality of sadness that can’t be undone.
Jack Nicholson is the in-your-face private detective, Jake Gittes, and Faye Dunaway is Evelyn Mulwray, the desperately unhappy wife-mother who seems to be everybody’s victim—both of them in Oscar-nominee performances.
Chinatown (1974, rated R, 130 minutes) mostly doesn’t take place in Chinatown—the story could happen anywhere. There is enough of intrigue, and enough of human failing, and enough of human courage.
There is ambition, and yearning, and avarice, and benevolence, and hints of love.
It is a tantalizing story about people you don’t want to be, and people you hope may achieve better lives, and people who must finally face the reality of life on the wrong track.
At the end you will be weeping in silence.
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