Don't believe the hype

Rating: 1/10 (9 January 2002)

Movies that force you to watch, simply compel you to think because they are multi-faceted and well thought out are few and far between. This "movie" is not one of them. It is convoluted, confusing for no reason and I was always waiting for a midget to appear as it would have made as much sense as anything else in this horrible film. Undoubtedly, there will be accolades and awards for this film and that is fine. That is Hollywood handjobbing its own. But if you want the straight truth, this movie is the longest 2 plus hours I have ever spent (not counting Titanic). It starts out with such great potential that its failing is even that much worse. There is a point where it gets, to put it plainly, stupid as hell. You no longer want to suspend your disbelief and no longer want to trust that the movie will make any sense at all. I know this is what some people will say is the point of the movie. But if a movie makes you think, that is one thing. If a movie makes you ponder why the director was ever given money to make such drivel and it only makes you think because the film has no genuine purpose and exist, as does so much of David Lynch's work, to be weird and confusing just for the sake of being weird and confusing then it is not really that impressive. Most of us could make a confusing movie with inane plot twists and strange characters, especially if we never had to make any sense of it. But most of us did not, somehow, convince people we were a good director. I strayed away from much of the movie itself as I was so disappointed with it that there was not a great deal to say that was good about it. The dual role of the blonde was a great performance in so that I did not really realize it was the same woman. Kudos to her. But her over the top starstruck new girl in town first bit of acting was so silly that I forgot the rest. There are so many loose ends in this film that I hope you are not a person who enjoy movies that make sense, much less movies that have a tidy ending. This does neither.