From: jgp@zodmate.Rational.COM (Jim Pellmann)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.movies
Subject: TP: FWWM review
Date: 12 Aug 92 22:16:31 GMT
Followup-To: alt.tv.twin-peaks

From: gsf@cray.com (Greg Fischer)
Subject: It's Going to Happen Again!
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 10:24:03 CDT

Having found myself in Europe several weeks ago (in Paris, the cultural
navel of the West, to be exact), I realized I had the perfect chance to
circumvent the cinema distribution system of the culturally bereft US
and catch the new Twin Peaks movie a month early.  Although my wife's
main motive was to see it in Europe so we didn't have to see it in the
US, where we would have to admit it to our babysitter, my motive was to
share my good fortune with my TP-newsletter compatriots, and give them
the early scoop.

Good news everyone:  it will be worth the wait.  This movie is dripping
with every element that made the TV show great, and has none of the
self-consciousness that made the second season so annoying.  The story
and pacing is taught, with nary a wasted frame.  And while we all
already know what's happened, what's happening and what's going to
happen, there is still that wonderful sense of anxiety, dread and untold
secrets.

The remainder of my impressions may constitute **SPOILERS**, although
I'm not quite sure how one spoils a prequel.

As for the direction, from the earliest frames David Lynch grabs you by
the nose and doesn't let go until the final credits roll.  There is a
lot of new (and excellent) music by Badalamenti and Lynch, including
what must be Lynch's version of rap.  The dialogue is typically great,
except for an amazingly (and perhaps, purposefully) dumb piece between
James and Laura concerning turkeys.  The acting is definitely up to par
here.  The evil Roger Ebert, in his "official" review, trashed Sheryl
Lee for her acting, but I thought she did a great job with an extremely
difficult part.  A little overwrought, maybe, but hey, that's what we're
paying for here.

The plot has been much-discussed in Netland as having three parts:   Theresa
Banks' investigation, Laura Palmer's story, and a post-second-season
resolution.  Well, this last part is miniscule to non-existent at best, with
just a few brief allusions to the second season during the course of the movie.
All in all, this may be for the best, as the movie is more unified for it.  The
initial Theresa Banks investigation sequence, lasting about a half-hour, is
very good.  Chris Isaac and Kiefer Sutherland are great fun as the federal
investigators; their characters are new and refreshing, yet fit in well with
the whole.

But I wasn't sure if I really wanted to see the Last Seven Days of Laura
Palmer.  It seemed like it would be too painful.  Besides, we all know
what happened from the TV series and the diary, and the movie does not
vary much from this framework (although certain plot nit-pickers will
have a hayday).  So what's the point?  Well, the point is Laura Palmer.
This movie lets you finally know her, her pain, her fears, her courage,
her strengths and weaknesses as she battles against an evil so
insidiously present, yet so frustratingly hidden.  You get to see her
interact with the characters we already know from the series (including
Daddy-Leland), and her life and actions of the last few days begin to
make more sense.  It ends up complementing the series and the diary, as
opposed to being redundant.  The effect is very satisfying.

This movie is NOT for the Twin-Peaks-Uninitiated; while it's somewhat
difficult for me to tell, it seemed that there was quite a bit of
reliance on the TV show for previous plot and character development.
I've compiled a list of bits and characters from the TV show that do or
don't show up in the movie. (This may be the worst bunch of **SPOILERS**;
I won't mention the few neat NEW things that appear.)

Alive and Well:  Leland and Sarah, James, Donna (although played by the
little-too-young-and-innocent-seeming Moira Kelly), Bobby and Mike,
Jacques Renault and Leo, the dancing dwarf, red curtains, BOB, Mrs
Tremond and Grandson, creamed corn, Harold Smith, Gordon Cole, Agent
Cooper, Diane, rings, one-armed Mike, convenience store, Annie, One-Eyed
Jack's, Ronette Polaski, fingernails, Shelly and Norma, diaries,
Roadhouse, Julee Cruise, cocaine, dreams, doppelgangers, Philadelphia,
Haywards (Doc and Eileen, I think), Log Lady, motor oil.

Missing in Action:  Sheriff Truman, Andy and Lucy, Hornes (Ben, Jerry,
Audrey, Johnny), Packards (Josie and Andrew), Martells (Catherine and
Pete(!)), Hurleys (Big Ed and Nadine), Doc Jacoby(!), Briggs (Major and
Elizabeth), Blackie, Wyndom Earle, Hank Jennings, Damned-good coffee,
donuts and pies, the Giant, the Great Northern.

This movie is also not for the squeamish.  Its all here:  the sex, the
drugs, the violence, the autopsies.  Lynch pulls no punches - literally.

And while I won't say how, Lynch manages to put a happy ending on this
story, if only to keep the viewer from going out after the movie and
jumping in front of a roaring metro engine.

The movie was pretty well-attended in Paris; the theatre room, while
only holding 200 seats, was packed.  The show I saw was subtitled in
French, which allowed Mary Beth to pick up on some of the dialogue that
was purposefully partially obscured in the soundtrack.  And according to
MB, the translators took out all occurences of the Seven-Words-You-Can't-
Say-On-Hypocritical-American-Network-TV - the only tarnish on the
French's otherwise shining cultural progressivism.

Anyway, once this gem manages to wash up on the shore of this cultural
backwater we call the US of A, I recommend you check it out, post-haste,
before it disappears back into the tide.

Two-Thumbnails-Up-ly yr's,

Greg

--
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"I lived in my head mostly."                | Jim Pellmann (jgp@rational.com)
"That's not a bad neighborhood."            | RATIONAL
"There were some pretty strange neighbors." | Santa Clara, California