This lacklustre sequel to Chinatown never really goes anywhere. There are no great revelations at the end of a story that is immensely difficult to follow and way too long in the telling. As director as well as star, Jack Nicholson, repeating his role as Jake Gittes, is obviously responsible for the stately and rather suffocating feel of the piece. It is, however, marvellously well set in period and written with great literary bite by Robert Towne, who also penned the original. In fact, you want it to be better than it is: after all, the initial elements of the story sound interesting even if they don't eventually amount to much. Alas, even Nicholson, now roly-poly and flat-footed, no longer seems ideal casting for the private eye fallen on better times, who finds ghosts from the past rising to haunt him during a seemingly straightforward case of revenge killing. There are some good moments here, but they just don't fuse together; and the acting, considering the strength of the cast, is not that great.

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