A brilliant film but frustratingly elliptical

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2005)

A woman's head slowly sinks into a pillow. The scene changes suddenly. A different woman (Laura Harring) is being driven in a limousine on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles to an unspecified destination when she realizes that she is about to be murdered. Before she can be killed, however, two cars, drag racing on the drive, crash into the limousine. The woman staggers away and finds shelter in an apartment in Los Angeles where she meets Betty Elms (Naomi Watts), a vivacious blonde who has just come to town from Ontario looking for work as an actress. Betty learns that the dark-haired woman who calls herself Rita is suffering from amnesia and cannot remember how she got there.
David Lynch's Mulholland Drive has a website www.mulhollanddrive.com. In this case, www could stand for weird, wacky, and wonderful. We know that one part is real and one part is a dream but the challenge is to figure out which is which. Or you can simply enjoy each twist of the plot, each steamy love scene, and each bizarre character as further evidence of the director's enormous talent. The film contains seemingly unrelated incidents but they all eventually come together -- well sort of. In a diner called Winkie's, a man tells another about a dream that a frightening figure is hiding outside the restaurant which is confirmed when both venture out there. Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux), a popular Hollywood film director is being intimidated by two mobster-like figures (Dan Hedaya, Angelo Badalamenti) who tells him that he must cast an actress named Camilla Rhodes in the lead. Kesher also discovers that his wife is cheating on him and gets beaten up when he discovers the two lovers in his bedroom.
A mysterious stranger called The Cowboy (Lafayette Montgomery) appears to be keeping track of his life. In the third sequence, a hit man looking for a black book kills three people who just happen to be there. Meanwhile, Betty's relationship with Rita develops into a Lesbian love affair as she tries to help her regain her memory. Two thirds of the way through the film, however, the perspective suddenly shifts and the complex plot gets murkier as identities change and reality and dreams intersect. Mulholland Drive can best be viewed as a bitter satire on the corrupt relations in Hollywood and the exploitation of women. It is a brilliant film, frustratingly elliptical but beautifully performed and very entertaining. It is a film that will keep coming back to you in the wee hours of the morning.