Day #35 - Chinatown

IMDB Link

Okay, so I know I was supposed to love this movie - I mean, it's a classic, right? Either I missed something entirely or it just wasn't my type of thing, but I didn't care for this movie at all. In fact, about 2 hours in, I asked Chris when the torture was going to end and checked the timer.

Here's the thing about mysteries. I like a good mystery, I really do - but I have to feel confident that as the movie goes along I am getting enough clues to understand the solution once it's revealed to me. I have to feel like, okay, I have all the pieces except for a couple....but what I really hate are mysteries where I feel like I'm not getting any of the information and so when the solution comes it will mean nothing to me. Chinatown was in the middle of these two dilemmas. The Usual Suspects is a perfect example of the first type of mystery whereas Mulholland Drive is a perfect example of the second. With Chinatown, I was pretty confused for most of the movie and when the end came, it was really interesting, but the journey was frustrating for me. I really just didn't care at all by the time the movie ended.

Chinatown was a 1974 Roman Polanski directed movie starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, neither of which I liked. I know, shoot me. What was the big deal? Roger Ebert just raaaaved about Nicholson but it escapes me. IMDB calls it "neo-noir" while little peon me just thinks it's film-noir...what is the difference? I don't know. I actually liked the story behind the movie more after reading about it on Wikipedia after - Jack Nicholson's character is based on William Mulholland and the story in Chinatown is based on the real life water wars that came about as water from the fields/farms outside of LA were piped in to provide water to the valley. Maybe I should have read this BEFORE the movie but alas....I did not. Let me know your thoughts, if you have seen it. The poster is pretty awesome though :)