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Chinatown

1974 2h 10m
Crime Mystery Thriller
MOVIEVIBE Rating
7.9/10
4,391 reviews
Your Rating
Chinatown

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

"You get tough. You get tender. You get close to each other. Maybe you even get close to the truth."

Top Billed Cast

Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
J.J. 'Jake' Gittes
Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway
Evelyn Cross Mulwray
John Huston
John Huston
Noah Cross
Perry Lopez
Perry Lopez
Lieutenant Lou Escobar
Burt Young
Burt Young
Curly
John Hillerman
John Hillerman
Russ Yelburton
Darrell Zwerling
Darrell Zwerling
Hollis I. Mulwray
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Man with Knife

Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews

J John Chard Verified TMDB Critic
2015-09-24

He nose you know!

Chinatown is directed by Roman Polanski and written by Robert Towne. It stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez and John Hillerman. Music is by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by John A. Alonzo.

Private investigator J.J. Gittes (Nicholson) is working on an adultery case but quickly finds himself embroiled in murder and corruption.

The gathering of Polanski, Towne, Nicholson and Robert Evans (producer) put their respective skills together to craft one of the most lauded neo-noir films of all time. It's a searing picture awash with the staples o...

F Filipe Manuel Neto Verified TMDB Critic
2022-07-29

**Great.**

I can't say much about Roman Polanski because I feel I've seen too little of his work to make a more global analysis: I have only seen _The Ninth Gate_, _The Pianist_ and, now, this film. It's not much… but the truth is that they are three films that I really liked, and about which I have a very good opinion. This film is very good, fitting into a style that we can call “neo-noir”, insofar as its visual aesthetic is heavily inspired by noir, with the caveats that are due, as it is a color film and not black and white. Polanski is an attentive and meticulous director, who pr...

C CinemaSerf Verified TMDB Critic
2022-09-09

I think this might be my favourite role from Faye Dunaway. She is "Evelyn", a woman who suspects that her husband "Hollis" (Darrell Zwerling) is playing away from home. She engages the services of the cynical PI "Gittes" (Jack Nicholson) and pretty soon people are dead and he is embroiled in an internecine story of adultery, corruption and manipulation that proves pretty perilous for a detective who is working with one women he suspects is being a bit frugal with the truth and another whose identity he is desperately struggling to discover. Nicholson is also on super form, his performance is n...