The Two Jakes picks up after the war, in 1948 Los Angeles with private investigator Jake Gittes a war hero. He has made a nice living off cheating spouses. Gittes is hired by realtor, and second Jake, Jake Berman (Harvey Keitel), to prove that Jake Berman's wife, Kitty (Meg Tilly), is being a cheat. Gittes manages to prove that Kitty is, indeed, being naughty and sets up a way for her to be caught in the act. At the setup, Berman walks in on his wife during the motel rendezvous with her lover. Kitty's lover winds up being Berman's business partner and Berman shoot him to death.
Berman's interruption was recorded with both a tape recording and photographs. Gittes' role throughout most of the rest of the film is to discover Berman's motives and unravel the tangle of intrigue and double-dealing concernring the crime. Gittes also has to keep himself from being killed or thrown into jail. Gittes finds himself in the middle of a complicated web, under pressure from all sides for the wire recording of the murder.
The Two Jakes doesn't wow me half so much as Chinatown did. Nicholson's performance was slow, almost like he really just didn't care about the character. Granted, this could be due to the fact that Gittes, himself, has gotten fat off the land. The other actors in the film play their parts well enough, but I don't think they were written overly well.
Unfortunately, The Two Jakes is a bit hazy in it's direction and manages to come across as a parody in some places. For some reason, the narration comes across as stiff, and overtly cliche. If you don't compare The Two Jakes with Chinatown, then you might not be disappointed, however, I did... and I am.
