Superb and Intricate Plot in Chinatown: The Real Movie Mystery
Every noir needs a detective who takes on a seemingly routine case and finds himself embroiled in an elaborate and far-reaching conspiracy. Here it is Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) who gets mixed up with Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), wife of the city’s water commissioner and daughter of a very powerful businessman. The production design, cinematography, and screenplay are what makes Chinatown a good film. What makes this screenplay so great is the efficiency; how it manages to tell its story quickly while keeping the audience on the edge of their seat.
It’s a movie that both follows the traditional storytelling beats but also changes enough to keep the audience guessing what will come next. These elements are what make Chinatown great. First, the movie is a real mystery. There are no easy answers to anything. As the story unfolds, one question is answered only for that answer to reveal two more questions. However, the film never leaves anything behind and everything we need to know to solve the mystery is presented to us early on in the film: The pool, the saltwater, and the murder. The real mystery of the film as we find out is the answer that has been there the whole time.
One of the movie’s biggest strengths is how it never wastes a moment and every scene, interaction and line of dialogue serve multiple purposes. Everything kind of moved the plot forward. For example, being introduced to a new character and element that later on gets incorporated or shows an important clue that has a big effect on the main plot. The opening scene where Jake is talking with Curley a client who first appears to be a throwaway character. This scene initially does is tell us about Jake, a private investigator whose morals are a little bit questionable. However, he also shows that he cares for Curley and when he is later introduced, the audience is already familiar with him. This scene also shows the audience how attached and patronizing Jake is. These qualities of Jake follow those of the detective genre where the detective is isolated, self-reliant and is a social middle man. Jake fits this description perfectly since he keeps his emotions and morals out of his work and is just a distant investigator. Evelyn also fits another character from the genre as she is the main antagonist, manipulates the male lead and keeps her main intentions hidden until the end of the movie. She never seems to let his persona go even after she drops the lawsuit because we can still see that she is hiding something.
What I love about Chinatown is its superb and intricate plot. I knew it was a good movie when I want to repeat the whole movie after the ending credits so that I could pick up the endless hidden clues. One thing I can’t get past though is the ending that was kind of depressing.
