Watch Movies You Should Have Already Seen

Watching The Two Jakes today requires some distance. If viewed straightaway after screening Polanski’s film, the vast differences between the respective directors’ stylistic approaches and period settings—not to mention a dramatically older-looking Nicholson—will prove distracting and incongruous. Put a week or month in-between the two films, and we’re allowed, if for just over two brief hours, to forget what a genius picture Polanski made, and instead concentrate on the polished, thoughtful noir Nicholson has made. To contrast these two films is unfair and meaningless; neurotically calling attention to the stylistic disparities between Polanski’s picture and Nicholson’s is what drove the sequel’s poor reception initially. Asking “What if Polanski had directed?” ignores what we were give, which is a smart, unexpectedly moving film that deepens the unwavering legacy of the original.