The Two Jakes (1990)

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Wallach, Frederic Forrest, James Hong, and David Keith, with a cameo from Tom Waits and a voiceover from Faye Dunaway
Grade: B-

Regardless of what you make think of The Two Jakes compared to Chinatown, the quality of the poster is almost as awesome as the first one.

Summary

In 1948 Los Angeles, California, private investigator J. J. “Jake” Gittes (Nicholson) is hired by Julius Berman (Keitel) to catch his cheating wife in the act. They go over some stuff beforehand like with Jake coaching Berman on what to say when he confronts his wife in the act. Strangely enough, Berman is pretty calm about the whole thing. Following the feelings of a tremblor coming and going, Jake cuts the meeting short. After lighting Berman’s cigarette for him, Jake finds out that Berman also goes by the name of Jake.

Understand the title now? They’re even wearing the same shoes.

Next, we cut to the hotel where Berman confronts his wife Kitty (Meg Tilly) and goes through his speech as prepared after seeing her cheating on him with Mark Bodine. Listening in the other room is Jake and his partner Ralph (Jeff Morris). Shockingly enough, Berman shoots and kills Bodine. Jake runs into the room to stop everything from going any further. Sometime after, LAPD Captain Lou Escobar (Perry Lopez) shows up at the station and brings Jake back into homicide to talk even though he just came from there. As you remember, Lou was just a lieutenant in Chinatown but has risen the ranks over the years. They talk for a bit and Jake tells him “everything” he knows, which is very little. Eventually, they run into Detective Loach (Keith) who cannot stand Jake, probably because he’s the son of the old Detective Loach who shot Evelyn Mulwray at the end of the first movie. He tells Jake to leave, even hanging up on a phone call that was for him. Before Jake could exit, Berman’s attorney Cotton Weinberger (Wallach) walks in and Loach changes his tune, letting Jake receive his phone call after Weinberger forces the action. Weinberger wants to speak directly with Jake since he was working with his client in Bergman, and they work here and there with each other in general. Weinberger tells Jake that the deceased Bodine was a partner of “B & B Homes”, a real estate development company. His partner was none other than Berman. After establishing that there was no wire recording on the police report, Weinberger reminds Jake he has a fiduciary relationship with Berman, and they’ll meet soon to discuss things.

Jakes goes back to his office to find the wife of Bodine, Lillian (Stowe), tearing up the place. He is able to calm her down long enough to reconvene with his secretary Gladys (Rebecca Broussard) and Ralph. After they tell him the basics, he goes back in the room, only for Lillian to accuse Jake of helping Berman and Kitty murder Bodine. Realizing she may make matters worse by going public with these accusations, he knocks her out and has Ralph drive her unconscious body home. Additionally, it turns out that Jake does have the wire recording of the incident in question (though the quality isn’t good enough to decipher everyone’s role) and he has his employee Larry (Joe Mantell) get it out of the car. That night, Weinberger calls Jake to hear the wire recording but during the phone call, another earthquake tremblor happens. Weinberger convinces Jake to hide the wire recording in his safe, so he can take a look at it before the police do. As Jake sleeps in his office after hours, some guy breaks in to steal the wire recording but once the power turns back on, he runs away. The recording starts playing by itself. A lot of it is muffled but one name is spoken very clearly: Katherine Mulwray. As you may remember, this is the name of the daughter of Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) from Chinatown, a name that still affects Jake mightily to this day for what went down all those years back. Along with this, the recording says Katherine could give Jake Berman a “real bad time” because she retains rights to the subdivision.

Jake is interrupted by a phone call from his current fiancée Linda (Rosie Vela), who’s angry with him for forgetting their dinner date that he no showed. Scrambling to leave, he gets another angry phone call, but this time it’s from Lillian. He goes straight to Lillian’s house instead to find her high as hell off some pills, though Ralph is looking after her so she’s not entirely out of it. After forcibly getting the drugs out of her system and chilling by the porch afterwards, Jake is approached by the attorney of Lillian and Mark, Chuck Newty (Forrest). Newty says he’s fine for now with Lillian avoiding the press at Jake’s request until it’s lawsuit time. Not only is she now widowed, but she wasn’t left anything in Mark’s death. Apparently, Mark and Jake Berman were in business with a San Fernando subdivision, but they didn’t necessarily trust the subdivision, so they made a deal where if one of them were to die, “all liabilities (and profits) are assumed by the surviving partner”. Then, Newty says that Berman more than likely exploited his wife’s infidelity to get to a five-or-six-million-dollar profit and used Jake unwittingly as an accomplice. After Newty is interrupted by Mattie Rawley for a moment, Jake tells Newty that no court is going to view him as an accomplice because of his reputation. Newty responds by saying that because Berman will more than likely plead “temporary insanity”. If he’s successful, Jake might get sued for allowing a crazy man to see his wife with another guy. On the other hand, if there’s evidence of premeditation and Berman is proved to be sane, Lillian can keep her husband’s money and she doesn’t have to sue Jake.

Basically, Newty wants Jake to prove that his own client is guilty of murder.

Once Newty leaves, Jake tells Larry that Bodine said Katherine Mulwray’s name before Berman shot him. The next day, Jake goes all the way out to one of Berman’s properties to speak to him. After mentioning that Berman turned down the sister of Lou Escobar’s offer for a house and Berman acknowledging that it “had to be done”, Berman leaves his two clients to speak with Jake privately. Jake basically accuses Berman of the plot Newty suggested, but Berman gets defensive and threatens Jake. They are both interrupted by Tyrone Otley (Tracey Walter), who has crossed paths with Jake because he used to work for Hollis Mulwray (the man murdered in Chinatown). He tells Berman that the earthquakes are shaking up the water on the housing properties Berman is trying to sell. It has made the water and gas under all of the homes in the area hazardous enough to explode. Before he leaves, he tells Berman to call the gas company, but Berman waves it off. Jake goes right back to accusing Berman of murder, but he denies everything. As a last-ditch effort, Jake asks Berman to give Bodine’s full share of the subdivisions to Lillian, so he doesn’t have to worry about all the lawsuits he could be involved in. If Berman does this, he promises to stay out of his hair. Otherwise, he’ll be forced to prove Berman killed Bodine for nefarious means. Berman doesn’t buy into the idea for a second, telling Jake he has no idea what’s actually going on around here (a callback to what Noah Cross said to Jake when he started investigating Hollis Mulwray’s death). After Berman goes back into the house, Jake has a cigarette and sits down on something. It triggers a gas explosion and sends him to the ground, knocking him unconscious.

Jake wakes up and finds himself inside the house with Berman and Kitty standing over him. Still dazed, Jake tries to ask the both of them how Berman acquired his land, though he’s not able to get an answer out of either of them. Berman is still frustrated with the questioning, and Kitty changes the subject to suggest Jake get examined by a doctor before they speak further. Instead, Jake goes straight back to his office to take a look at some documents.

Lou calls to get Jake’s wire recording, but he tells Gladys to take a message. Then, Larry gives Jake shit for caring so much about the Mulwray name being involved because he doesn’t think it has anything to do with Berman. After Jake argues that it might since neither one of them know for sure, Larry tells him he’ll check the chain of title to the land to see if anything shows up. Once Larry exits, Jake looks through Evelyn Mulwray’s old file. After reading the letter Evelyn wrote so many years back about how she was going to try to escape to Mexico with Katherine to avoid Noah Cross, Jake sees some newspaper clippings of Katherine’s disappearance. Along with this, he finds a picture of Kahn (Hong), Evelyn’s old butler. Jake goes to meet with Kahn. There, he asks about Katherine and if she needed a lot of money, but Kahn gets a bit jumpy with his responses. Though Jake insists he just wants to ensure her safety, Kahn tells him that he would do more harm than good if he got involved. That night, Jake gets back to his office to see that gangster Mickey Nice (Rubén Blades) and his henchman Liberty Levine broke in, waiting for him. He gives Jake a live grenade, pulls the pin, forces Jake to throw it in his safe under his desk, and close the safe to destroy the wire recording. Once he blows it up, Mickey checks and finds that the wire recording isn’t in there, so Liberty and Mickey beat Jake’s ass. Despite Jake telling him his lawyer has it, Mickey tells him he wants it by tomorrow or there’ll be hell to pay. Later, Jake wakes up on his couch to Lillian.

This man needs better locks.

Lillian knows Mickey because Berman and him used to be best friends. After this, she asks Jake to not only testify that Berman knew Kitty was cheating on him with Bodine but also give up the wire recording because she thinks it would prove Berman murdered Bodine. Jake isn’t so sure it proves anything, but he can’t because of certain ethics revolved around the fact that it is his client, and he can’t use the information against him. Lillian responds by saying she’ll hire him instead to prove Berman did what he did and that nothing else matters. Jake lies and says Berman agreed to give her the five-or-six-million involved in Bodine’s share of the subdivision to throw her off, and she immediately changes her desperate tune to an inquisitive one, leaving the room for a moment to make a phone call to Newty. As she does this, he takes the coveted wire recording out of a hidden safe and puts it in his pocket. After she comes back into the room and turns down the fake offer from Berman that Jake suggested, they discuss Mattie Rawley and how Newty is her husband’s lawyer too. Mattie’s husband, rich oil man Earl Rawley (Richard Farnsworth), was a friend of Bodine’s. Though Jake doesn’t give her the wire recording, he agrees to play it for Lillian to listen to. She doesn’t give much information before she starts screaming once the gunshots occur, and it results in her tackling Jake to the ground and eventually embracing him. She tries to leave, but she’s still flipping the fuck out, so Jake grabs her to calm her down. Eventually, it leads to sex.

Classic Nicholson.

The next morning, Jake tells Larry that Lillian is hiring them to find the previous owner of the B & B subdivision land. Privately, Larry tells Jake he found Berman’s title insurance report, and that the previous owner was Mickey. However, the previous title transfer to Mickey was that of Katherine Mulwray! The transfer happened with three different people in the same day and place. Now, the plot thickens! Jake didn’t want to bring up his old memories, but it’s all been tied together for this job involving Berman. Now, Jake will have to face the aftermath of what happened in Chinatown to solve this mystery, as well as finally get closure after all these years.

My Thoughts:

Trying to match the success of Chinatown is a tall task to say the least. You really have to strive for greatness because the reputation of the first is about as high as it gets. Now, we weren’t expecting The Two Jakes to be The Godfather Part II to Chinatown‘s The Godfather because the pieces almost never align that perfectly twice. Even so, I was still expecting something great, as these characters and the continuation of the world its predecessor created was one worth revisiting. You still have a great cast, a returning Robert Towne writing the screenplay, and the director being the guy who knows the lead character better than anyone in Jack Nicholson. Hell, if Nicholson was game to return as the great private detective, we the audience should be right there with him. Though The Two Jakes has a lot of elements that are very good, and it’s awesome to see the return of Jake Gittes, this sequel was just…adequate. It’s still hard for me to say whether I really enjoyed this experience, or that I’m just happy to see Jake back in any capacity because I’m such a big fan of the first movie.

Put it like this, with Chinatown, I’d be mad if you’ve never seen it. If you consider yourself a movie fan or anything close to the sort, it’s basically required viewing. With The Two Jakes, I would say, “Did you know they made a sequel? It’s not bad!”.

As fun as it is to see Jack Nicholson in the fedora once more, this time in a late 1940s setting, my biggest gripe is how ridiculously convoluted the plot is. If you slip up or lose focus for a second, you may miss out on a crucial detail, a single development relating to the characters, or a certain plot point that can affect your understanding of the film massively. Honestly, I wouldn’t fault you for watching this movie a second time immediately after watching it. This isn’t because it’s a good movie, it’s just that you’re bound to miss something in your first viewing of this gloriously complicated narrative. In a mystery film, it’s understood that you may have to go out of your way with layered details to throw off the viewer, but there was so much poured into this overly long story that the viewing audience can get lost in a hurry. It also doesn’t help that it’s nowhere near as interesting as the first movie’s slow build was. On top of that, the payoff and “huge” reveal isn’t entirely shocking (or exciting for that matter), so the twists the plot takes in pursuit of this endgame didn’t seem to be enough to warrant the lengthy story and perplexing details. It doesn’t even have to be this way either because the point of the story turns out to be much more focused on the characters rather than mysterious revelations Jake tries to uncover. Obviously, this is a much more intelligent screenplay than most Hollywood films of its time, but that isn’t the problem. Chinatown made this work and was a thrilling movie all at the same time. This wordy sequel gets confused in its own details regarding the intricacies of Berman, Bodine, and their dispute over the housing development project, but it more importantly fails in capturing our interest to the level of its predecessor, a level this sequel never reaches for a singular moment. There’s just not enough excitement, twists, or action in general to keep you fully attentive.

Everything still falls perfectly into place story-wise, and every question is answered by the end, but it’s just that they don’t get there in the thrilling way they did with Chinatown.

Part of the blame goes to Nicholson. He’s only directed three films and it shows. Though he has some tricks up his sleeve from a creative standpoint, he’s just too inexperienced to handle a serious film like this with a core as emotional as this one. He seems to be directing a regular neo-noir movie rather than a sequel to Roman Polanski’s Chinatown and that’s the problem. It doesn’t do justice to the series Nicholson helped make legendary. The added monologuing voiceover from Jake didn’t help either in that regard, further pushing this sequel into a regular private detective story rather than the iconic sequel it should have been. In a way, it could be looked at as insight into Jake’s inner thoughts and feelings, but it’s more used for quips and can be a bit unfocused and unnecessary at times.

This sequel existed for the character of Jake Gittes to finally get his closure on the Mulwray family, something that left a hole in him and the audience at the end of the first film. It doesn’t cheapen the all-time ending of the first film either. If anything, it enhances it because it shows how after all these years, an engaged Jake never got over what happened to Evelyn that night. Did he love her? This may be controversial, but I don’t think he did. He grew fond of her, but he was keener on helping a poor woman who went through traumatic experiences that no person should ever have to face. Yes, he was attracted to her, but Jake was more affected of the fact that his actions led to her personal life blowing up publicly, and her eventually being killed. It was a life-changing moment for him, and it makes sense why he still thinks of it. As soon as he hears Katherine Mulwray’s name on the wire recording, his motivation on this job completely changes because he’s sees it as his final chance to see if Katherine ended up okay. This is why I’m fine with them continuing the Mulwray story rather than starting with a new mystery entirely. You have to consider the fact that the last time Jake saw Katherine was when she was being pulled away by Noah Cross. This has stuck in our memory ever since, let alone Jake’s. It’s a moment that would have to be addressed somewhere by Jake in this sequel because of how big of a moment it was for his life and career, so you can’t blame Robert Towne for the way he wrote this film. With that being said, I felt like there should have been just a little more emotion attached to it on Nicholson’s part when faced with his internalized feelings regarding Evelyn and Katherine. They go to it here and there, but they underuse this element of the story if anything.

Despite the talented cast, the performances didn’t jump off the screen like they did in the original Chinatown either. Here, it was all about Jack Nicholson, who plays an older and more experienced Jake Gittes, who navigates through a wide range of people who all seem to have ulterior motives. Jake is more dejected than usual, but it’s because he doesn’t take his job nearly as seriously as he used to, probably because of lingering effects from the first movie when he got too involved with his clients. This new Jake is closer to retirement than ever before. He golfs, he’s a little more compliant with the authorities than before, and he’s got a girl, though he doesn’t treat her very well at all. In fact, she’s so unimportant, we don’t see her face until the last twenty minutes of the film. Jake just isn’t invested as he was in his younger years. The only thing that can really keep him invested to the level he used to be was the Mulwray name because of what it represents. Basically, it’s his biggest failure. As I mentioned before, you can see his expression change as soon as he hears Katherine’s name on that wire recording. His energy changes in an instant. From then on, he becomes fixated on figuring out how deep this case goes. He would’ve figured out a way to stop Berman regardless, but once Katherine is brought up, a whole new layer of trouble is added to the situation. Evelyn Mulwray’s death and his failure to to stop Noah Cross still haunts Jake. This is his last shot, and it reignites the fire in our aged hero. He has a chance to make things right. Even though he never explicitly says any of this, you can tell this is what motivates him. When Jake has a chance to really nab Berman, he even vows to back off just so he can talk with her. This is how important this final job is to him. It’s the closure he needs.

Though she’s an added stress, it’s like Jake wants this problem because he can finally get over it. He wants any reason to reopen the case file on Mulwray. On a side note, I don’t understand why he gets so much opposition from Larry when it’s brought up. As an investigator (his fucking job mind you), you have to analyze every bit of information given to you. Even if Jake had no frame of reference as to who Katherine Mulwray is, you can’t deny the fact that Bodine said on the tape how much trouble Katherine could be for Berman. Why does that, according to genius Larry, have “nothing to do with Berman”? It has everything to do with Berman, you fucking dunce! It says it directly in the wire recording! You have to analyze every aspect of the case dipshit! Even after he finds evidence of the title transfer switching hands from Katherine to Mickey to Berman on the same day, Larry still suggests this might not mean anything! How does this dude have a fucking job? Thankfully, Jake points out his idiocy by mentioning how nice it was for her to give up all her land/money with obvious sarcasm.

Nicholson is just as entertaining and charismatic as you would imagine in his return as the hero, but I didn’t feel much about anyone else. Harvey Keitel plays the asshole he usually plays (with a small exception during the climax), Madeleine Stowe is all over the place and yells like a maniac to the point where you’re not sure what side of the coin she actually falls on, and the supporting characters are memorable but seem to only exist to shout out plot details for Jake to follow. For instance, what did the Kahn interaction really do for us, other than give us a cool fan moment to see a character from the first film? He offers Jake absolutely nothing. Earl Rawley was completely full of shit with everything he was saying and though it gives us a chance to put a name to a face when he’s referred to by other characters, his presence wasn’t necessary either. If he was in the film more and had some type of interaction with other characters to show how ruthless of a man he could be, I would’ve welcomed it, but I didn’t see any of that. Considering how his drilling for oil under all of those homes can endanger a lot of lives, he’s kind of the real villain of this story, but he comes and goes despite how big of a problem he actually is. In a conversation with Tyrone, Jake acknowledges that Earl is a major problem but since Earl is messing with the smaller problem in Berman, they should just let it happen.

It does seem a bit out of character for our hero to not address the bigger issue at hand because it’s exactly what the younger Jake would do. However, it kind of shows you where Jake is at in this stage of his life. He’s got this “Fuck it” attitude because he’s more focused on Katherine at this point and he’s slowing down in general. This grown-up version of Jake Gittes is probably tired of having his life in danger. Messing with big fish like Earl could get him killed, and he doesn’t have the dog in him that he had before. In Chinatown, he faced Noah Cross head on with reckless abandon because he knew Cross was the big fish that could tear the house down, but the added development of his attraction to Evelyn and her personal story was what made him see things through to the end regardless of the danger. In The Two Jakes, the only thing that can push him further is the idea that he can help Katherine. Other than that, he seems fine with not going any further. So as a positive, it added some serious character development to who Jake Gittes is at this stage in his life. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t a fan of what he has become. Knowing how Jake was, we are practically begging for him to go further with it because there were so many asshole characters that deserved worse fates and guys like Earl was one of the many. If Jake did purse this to the highest level, it may have added some much-needed excitement and danger to the movie anyway. Then again, it seemed like the story Robert Towne and Jack Nicholson wanted to tell was Jake’s pursuit of Katherine and her safety to make up for what happened with Evelyn, so taking the story in this direction wouldn’t really work.

Unfortunately, they chose the more boring route and the movie as a whole suffered because of it.

The only person to stand out other than Nicholson was Meg Tilly, who plays the mysterious Kitty pretty well. She’s simplistic in her approach but something about the slower way she talks, her demeanor, and her delayed reaction gives her this sad aura. You can tell she’s broken in some way. Part of uncovering the plot of this story is finding out what is bothering the secretive woman, and it’s fine because she’s puzzling enough to make you want to know more about her. Harvey Keitel is a satisfactory enough heavyweight to go against Nicholson too. It’s a solid casting choice, but something about his characterization as Jake Berman irked me. Throughout the film, they go from being at each other’s throats to helping each other out and I’m not sure why, regardless of the outcome of the movie. It makes even less sense in Berman’s case. When the early accusations of Berman come to light, Jake tells him to his face that he’s going to come after him and try to get him in trouble but after the first explosion, Berman takes Jake in and makes sure he’s safe and healthy before calling a doctor. Why? Why is he being so nice to him? When we get deeper into the plot, Berman threatens to have Jake killed at a golf course once he knows Jake figured out a majority of what’s going on. When we consider this, why the fuck should Jake care about Berman’s health concerns later on? Why do they try to play up the emotion in the climax? They’re not friends. Berman was his client at best. Why should I give a fuck about Berman? (SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS) Is it just because he promises to take care of Kitty once he’s gone and that he’s not all bad because he’s going to die anyway? No one’s arguing that having a terminal illness sucks, but he still spent most of this movie making Jake’s life a living hell, threatening him and sending gangsters after him.

Why should we give a fuck if he has a better marriage than we initially thought? He’s still an asshole. Also, as cool as the climax was, I can’t help but think Berman’s solution was a massive overreaction to what is going on, especially considering the whole trial was being swept under the rug. Why not just talk things out with your spouse? The worst has already happened. Are you that bad at communicating?

There are some memorable moments in this film like the awesome police station fight between Jake and Loach, ending with Jake taking Loach’s gun after it went off and making him suck on the barrel in front of everyone like it’s a dick. It was cool as hell, mostly because this was one of the very few scenes where we get to see the rage of Jake finally boil over. Plus, Loach was practically asking for an ass-kicking from the beginning, so it was truly gratifying to see him get bitched out in front of all his co-workers. The added bonus was Jake getting flashbacks to the ending of Chinatown as he pointed the gun at him. It added the ferocity this film didn’t have enough of. I needed more of THAT type of heightened emotion sprinkled throughout. This would’ve added a much-needed edge to the film and would’ve been a great way to remind the audience how badly Jake has been affected over the years from what happened in this film’s predecessor. On a side note, one scene that I will remember more than anything was Jake telling Lillian before they have sex to get down on her knees, stick her ass up in the air, and to not move until he tells her. For a movie like this, and a guy like Nicholson, this was so unexpected that I couldn’t help but laugh at the weirdness of it all.

The Two Jakes is a solid continuation of the story of J.J. “Jake” Gittes. Though it doesn’t match the feeling of greatness that the first film had, or match it on any level for that matter, it’s still cool to see our hero back one more time to finally put an end to the case that has left a mental block on him after all these years. This was not the essential viewing experience the first movie was, nor was the style or filmmaking aspects of it. In addition, it can be downright confusing at times, but it’s still a solid neo-noir film, with many memorable moments, and a great Jack Nicholson. It’s not the greatest sequel, but it has its moments. All things considered, I think Nicholson and Towne achieved the goal of constructing the story they wanted to tell. I just wish their goal was to reach a bit higher with it.

Fun Fact: Plans started in 1976 with Dustin Hoffman playing opposite Nicholson. Can you imagine how insane this would’ve been? Later, producer Robert Evans wanted to play the role of Jake Bergman and the new cast around the year of 1985 was to include stars such as Keitel, Joe Pesci, Dennis Hopper, Kelly McGillis, and Cathy Moriarty. Eventually, this fell apart for numerous reasons as well, which is a damn shame. At one point, Harrison Ford was even being considered to take over the role of Jake Gittes, with Roy Scheider taking the role of Bergman.