Okay, so, this movie is directed by Roman Polanski, who is a convicted child rapist that fled the country to avoid imprisonment. When I saw that this was coming up, I debated with myself about whether or not I should even watch this movie. Ultimately, I decided — and I make no claims that this is a “right” decision, just that it seemed reasonable to me — that it would be okay as long as I made sure that no money went to the director in any way. So this is the first one of these where torrenting has been my first resort, rather than the last.

So anyway: Roman Polanski is a vile human being, and I went into this movie kinda suspecting that the movie was going to be vile, too. I mean, it has Jack Nicholson as its protagonist, it’s all about LA, and it’s noir. All things I hate!

But it honestly wasn’t terrible. The plot moves along quickly enough, and has enough convolutions to hold interest; Nicholson is still young enough to be acting, rather than just mugging for the camera; and the focus on LA’s water rights seems still timely. I don’t think it breaks through into greatness, but it’s solidly decent.

Except… the end of the movie, which Polanski changed from the happy-ending screenplay, is about an old powerful rich guy literally getting away with rape and murder, and the lesson of the film is that this is just how the world is and that a sensible person will accept it: “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.” Which is an awfully convenient message for Polanski to be putting out into the world, so this turns out to be a movie that’s essentially impossible to divorce from its awful context.