Written and Directed by:  David Lynch
Starring:  Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, Dan Hedaya, Robert Forster
 

October 22, 2001

         I’ve always been mixed on David Lynch’s wild fantasies and film noir.  I was never a Twin Peaks fan.  Wild at Heart was good for its hard core romance story and Nicolas Cage’s performance as the wild lover of a young Laura Dern.  Of course Dennis Hopper is simply chilling as the maniac in Blue Velvet. 
         None of these films really stood out to me as really capturing what Lynch has to offer, until now.  In his new film, Mulholland Drive, Lynch tells the story of Hollywood through the eyes of an amnesiac victim, the young aspiring actress she meets, and a hip new film director.
         The first two hours of the film center around a mystery unraveling about the identity of a woman who gets amnesia after a terrible car accident.  She meets Betty, a young aspiring film actress, who befriends her and helps her in her identity quest.  Lynch’s infamous dark humor comes into play when Betty is just a little too cheery to be real.
         On the other hand, Lynch delves into Hollywood in almost a noir style with the hip new film director, Adam Kesher.  Adam is coerced into choosing Camille Rhodes as the lead actress in his new film.  Hollywood is shown as being controlled by weird intimidating almost mafia like characters, who always get their way.  The two stories merge when Betty comes in to try out for the part.
         The last half of the film takes a turn and will leave you asking:  Did we just watch a two hour dream?  Lynch makes this question harder to answer by confusing us with two blond characters who look alike…or are they the same person?
         Answering that question is what makes Mulholland Drive so much fun.  The opening two hours is an entertaining suspense driven mystery, which catapults into a finale that will leave you wondering what’s real and what’s illusion.  On top of that, the actors are mostly unknowns, with a couple faces you might recognize, which adds a nice indie quality.  The score, a mix between the chant of Eyes Wide Shut and the theme music of The Thin Red Line (which was also used in the previews for Pearl Harbor), provides a spooky nuance. 
         Mulholland Drive will require multiple viewings to figure out, like this year’s other memory game Memento, and stands as one of the year’s most stylish films. 

Recommended Alternatives:  Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet (both d: Lynch), Memento, Eyes Wide Shut

-Reviewed in Theater-