Forget It Jake(s)

 It Ain’t Chinatown

The Two Jakes (1990) – In this sequel to the iconic “Chinatown”, Jake Gittes is back.  This time it’s oil at the center of his investigation.  Even though it looks more like murder.

Directed by Jack Nicholson

Starring Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly

Why I Liked It – A noble concept with a great cast gives you just enough in the end.

Over the last couple decades of movie watching, I have become jaded with re-makes, re-boots and sequels.  Far too often the movies become either a pale shadow of what went before, or the writers/directors reach for ever more outrageous story lines.  IN the end, it’s like waking up with an unpleasant taste in your mouth, wondering how you got here.

Here, the creative team (Nicholson and writer Robert Towne) starts with an even greater challenge.  This sequel is to one of the greatest movies of the 1970s certainly, and arguably of the second half of the 20th century, “Chinatown”.  I am sure they felt confident going in because they were core parts of the creative team of that original.  Some fans point to the 1974 classic as Nicholson’s greatest work.  Towne wrote the original script.  Easy, right?

Weelllllll….

J.J. “Jake” Gittes is a private investigator in Los Angeles in the ‘30s and ‘40s.   His work takes place on the seamy side of life, and he’s OK with that.  LA in those years differed greatly from what we know today, but the roots of the modern city were booming.  There were plenty of seams for a man like Jake to work.  In “Chinatown” he got involved in the underhanded politics that robbed most of the region for hundreds of miles to the north and east for the water that allows Los Angeles to exist.  The current drought and climate change issues have forced that part of the country to look once more at those decisions.  Here, he finds himself entangled with the booming oil business that took off after the second World War.  (These two movies were to be the first two-thirds of a trilogy about the three great and corrupt changes that make the west coast city of dreams what it is.  The third would have been about the automobile and the destruction of public transportation in LA.)  Once again, there are beautiful women, powerful men and violence that lurks around every corner.  Add in the memory of the beautiful Evelyn Mowray (played by Faye Dunaway) who died despite Jake’s best effort to save her, and the Mowray daughter that Jake swore to protect.  Once again, everyone wants a piece of him and all for conflicting reasons.  Jake is where he operates best, in survival mode.

All of that would seem to be more than enough to carry the movie.  Add in a great cast of supporting actors (Eli Wallach, Ruben Blades, Richard Farnsworth, David Keith, James Hong, Tracey Walter, heck even Tom Waits has an uncredited appearance as a Vice cop), and movie success is a slam dunk, right?

Weellllll….

So what went wrong?  The story is a bit of a mess, with parts that seem to be arranged in random order.  Jake has a fiancee for no apparent reason.  But the real loss here is in the director’s chair.  Roman Polanski directed “Chinatown”.  Polanski has a decidedly unpleasant personal vitae, but he was a very good and sometimes great director.  Nicholson simply isn’t in that class, and it shows here. For every scene that demands attention, there are two that either miss the mark or are just dull.  He lacks the precision of a great director. It felt like he would reach for a John Huston style panoramic but pull up just shy of the goal.  The worst moment was a scene where Berman (Keitel) is practicing a script Jake wants him to use.  You’re treated to about a minute of Jake’s shoes blocking out almost everything on screen.

It’s not “Chinatown.”  But few movies are.  Even with its flaws, there’s plenty here to make the just over two-hour investment worth your time.

Rating – *** Worth A Look