The Two Jakes (1990)

Too much of everything

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The sequel to "Chinatown" (1974) finds Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) investigating adultery and murder... and the money that comes from oil.Made 16 years after its famous predecessor, the film had a very troubled production, and was supposed to be made around 1985. Originally, producer Robert Evans was to play the "second" Jake, but Towne, who was going to direct the film at that time, did not think he was the right choice and fired him. After this, Nicholson ended up directing (and it would be his last film to date).Obviously, it was never going to be as good as the original. But it did not deserve to flop, either. Jack Nicholson is commanding in his performance (and direction), and I would suspect that the film would have a growing fan base as Harvey Keitel's star rose post-Tarantino. This is the same great underworld as before, and I wish a third film would have come to pass.

The fact that 16 years has passed between the fantastic Chinatown and it's sequel means that you shouldn't expect any consistency in terms of quality, and you won't find it either.Towne delivers another old-school mystery script with questionable ethics, hidden agendas, deceitful women, and everything else you would expect, but this time he fails. The main twist of the story is pretty obvious from about 30 minutes in, but the plot itself becomes so convoluted with unnecessary characters that it's quite difficult to keep track of everyone's motives. Nicholson is pretty creative as a director, but he falls into the trap of trying too hard. There are simply too many ideas, and interesting shots thrown together, so the movie doesn't have a distinct style of it's own. I hate this phrase, but yes, sometimes less is more. Nicholson as an actor, well, isn't Jake Gittes, but himself. I know that Jake is older, he has been through a lot, he had to change, but somehow I can't feel that this is still the same character. Though a while back I was practically in love with Madeleine Stowe, not just her character is really out of place here with her silliness, but she was awful too, especially compared to Dunaway in Chinatown.The only positive here is the setting: after irrigation in the prequel, we get to learn a little about oil drilling in California, but this aspect is also weaker then it was in Chinatown, which is sad, because that pitch was supposed to be the core of planned trilogy.

Knowing this Chinatown sequel's detested reputation, I was too interested in seeing a movie directed by Jack Nicholson to turn away. I was surprised to find that it is very under-appreciated. Nicholson is quite an inventive, if a little show-offy, director. His confident helming of the very late sequel to a highly revered contemporary classic is full of interesting shots and his performance realistically portrays an older, wiser Jake Gittes who has been seasoned with philosophies on the pain and importance of the past.It is not simply on account of Nicholson. Robert Towne's own continuation of his predecessor is quite creative. Harvey Keitel plays the second Jake, who has hired the initial Jake to catch his wife cheating on him red-handed. In the course of the sting, Keitel up and shoots the adulterous lover, who turns out to be his real estate partner. Nicholson is now under intense scrutiny for his unwitting part in the crime and has to figure out if it was justifiable homicide or straight murder. The case proceeds to elude to California's booming oil industry as well as his own past after he stumbles upon a wire recording during the investigation that mentions the daughter of Faye Dunaway's ill-fated character in the last film.The Two Jakes, to me, can stand on its own with Chinatown. Polanski directed the first film much much differently than Nicholson addresses this follow-up. I don't believe in the case of Chinatown a sequel needs to be a comparable continuation. Making a second installment sixteen years later allows a lot of license for it to be its own beast. Some such sequels done that way are disasters. The Two Jakes stays afloat. And Madeleine Stowe remains the most insatiably attractive woman of any superlative comment that I've made within the past month, at least. And I've made a lot.The film's theatrical trailer is actually incredible. It's narrated by Gittes, telling us how the war was good for Los Angeles in so many different ways that contribute to his business, as extremely dry bits of humor throughout the film punctuate it here and there and provocative, often voyeuristic shots from the movie are included.

To compare Chinatown and the Two Jakes, which would probably take more sufficiently a whole entire other article, one I wouldn't print here, it might be noteworthy on the surface to also make a co-comparison in terms of iconic films. The Godfather 2 and Chinatown both came out in 1974, and then both saw their respective next (and as we sit here likely final) installments come out in 1990. Both were hyped to one degree ore another, and neither one lived up to the majority of the expectations that were already steadfast in everybody's minds (and, to be fair, criticisms on both sides aren't entirely invalid). But probably even more-so for Two Jakes than Godfather 3, Jack Nicholson and Robert Towne did have a solid story to tell in continuing along the saga of Jake Gittes, whom Towne envisioned not simply in the context of his homage mold (Chandler/Hammett), but in a larger context than the novelistic noirs of old. This was the second part of a supposed trilogy, all based, according to Towne, on natural goods (first part water, second part earth, third, the part unproduced, would have been air and focused on pollution in the 50s).It's easy to say that the Two Jakes is nowhere near the status of Chinatown, but then again it's also hard to say that Jack Nicholson is really as great a director than Roman Polanski. He probably isn't, this in spite of the fact that this could arguably be the best of the three films he helmed (the others underrated Drive, He Said, and Going' South). The best service that he does to the material is to make something that is by itself enthralling as a movie unto itself, while tipping the hat to all of the various supporting characters that previously appeared (from Escobar to the snotty hall-of-records nerd) in Chinatown. Only when Nicholson starts to get obvious, like with the flashes back to brief bits from the original film, does it get a little much. What helps too to distinguish it is a slight change in pace with the structure of the story. Not so much in certain mechanics of the detective procedural, as Towne knows he can't mess with that too much.The chief difference, which probably split and continues to split many fans, is the use of voice-over. Polanski dropped it from his film, having the audience find things out as Gittes did. But for Nicholson, the narration is something else entirely. It's used a lot more like in proper detective fiction, not so much as to guide along the plot but to ruminate, almost like some sage of a weathered snoop, and even if it's used maybe once more than needed (which bit I can't quite point out) it's very effective in adding a mood to the piece, a tone that complements the convention of "we may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us." In this case, Gittes, as continued to be played by Nicholson with that awesome balance of cool thinking and wit, gets into a case with "another" Jake (Keitel, what's not to say about him), and infidelity in the mix. But there's a lot more in store, including an audio recording of a crime, and some details in it that stir up everybody's attention. Meanwhile, a woman named "Kitty", Jake Berman's wife, has something she's hiding from Gittes and... you get the idea.If The Two Jakes isn't always great art- and it's not to say there aren't some thrilling moments of pure cinema, like the opening shot or those scenes driving out in the fields of California (and speaking of nostalgia, orange groves), and the Green Parot club, not to mention a couple of other notable exceptions- it's excellent craftsmanship, where it's like a yarn from the late 40s with a couple of extra spikes of plot contrivance and luscious dames that give our Shamus a bit of a loop at times. It works on that level entirely, of still being playful throwback and serious crime drama, and while it doesn't break that many rules there are for those who want to give it a shot. As far as long-awaited sequels go, for me, it could've been a lot worse.