Review of Chinatown (1974) by Arth J — 15 Oct 2018

In awe of its sheer intensity..

Chinatown.

Polanski's mysterious case is a nail biting chase that makes you sweat and wolfish for it, where being manipulated by the writers is all you will wish for. And the writers does, they do fiddle with you like puppets just as they do with their characters. It redefines the genre thriller with nothing but a single lose thread that keeps you on the hook throughout its more than two hours of journey. Unlike any other mystery drama, it follows a single track only, which has the potential to keep you tangled in this world of cheat and death. The weaving of the structure that builds up to a clue or newer perspective on the case, is how Polanski keeps the audience in awe of its sheer intensity.

The narration is not only gripping and adaptive but layered with thought provoking dialogues and pragmatic conversations along with raising sensitive issues. Nicholson's portrayal is smarter and mature than his usual acts are and the credit also goes to the writers that has allotted him a much wider range of persona that easily overpowers others. His hat, his suit, his notions of lighting a cigarette and arranging his hairs, he is calculating and observing on each steps. His methods are brimmed with such cunning intuitions that he fuels the entire feature that drives it into a whole new brighter town.

Supporting him thoroughly, Dunaway is fishy enough to keep the uncertainty alive through the sincerity of her performance. Polanski keeps the jagged script on the edge throughout the course and it is that awareness of the hidden Trump card that makes you bleed and sweat. Chinatown is less of the usual mechanical town than the one that bounce on its own rhythm, it is a sharp diagnosis of a complex troubled case to which you ought to be obliged to explore into.