A fantastic riddle that might not have an answer

Rating: 8/10 (3 April 2015)

Like most of David Lynch's movies, "Mulholland Drive" makes no sense: strange things happen for no apparent reason, characters change identities, and by the end it's unclear what you've just spent two and a half hours watching. Once you try to make this movie fit into a neat little box, you've lost the battle. Once you accept that it won't give you the answers you want, however, you will have a great time making up the answers yourself. "Mulholland Drive" is about whatever you want it to be about; it's like a dream that could be a fantasy or a nightmare, depending on what you bring into it.
The plot (if there even is one) follows the weird, twisty paths Lynch is so well-known for: a young actress named Betty (Naomi Watts) moves to Hollywood to make it big, and meets an amnesiac named Rita (Laura Harring). She decides to help Rita solve the mystery of her identity, and along the way the two become lovers. Meanwhile, Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux), the director of the movie Betty wants to star in, is strong-armed into casting a certain actress by a shadowy group of mobsters, a mysterious cowboy (Monty Montgomery), and a malevolent dwarf (Michael J. Anderson) in the proverbial smoky back room.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Lynch movie if it didn't take a trip through a parallel reality. It turns out that Betty may (or may not) be a failed actress named Diane Selwyn, and that Rita may (or may not) be her far more successful ex-lover Camilla Rhodes, whom Diane pays to have killed (or does she?). There are little vignettes about an incompetent hit man (Mark Pelligrino), a man (Patrick Fischler) whose recurring nightmare is coming true, and a spooky nightclub where everything is prerecorded. They may have nothing to do with the story, or may be very important to it.
There are a plethora of fan sites, chat rooms, and even published academic papers debating the meaning, or lack thereof, of this movie. Maybe Betty is Diane's fantasy of a better life, and Rita is her perfect partner - no past, no baggage, existing only to love her. Or maybe both Diane and Betty are figments of Rita's dream. Or maybe, as the emcee of the dreamlike nightclub says, "this is all an illusion." I prefer to think of it as one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books: the path you choose will determine where you end up.
Watts is completely convincing as both a starry-eyed ingénue and a jaded, depressed failure. She plays both parts (or is it the same part?) for keeps. Harring complements her perfectly as both a damsel in distress and a sultry femme fatale. The sex scenes between them would have been exploitative in a lesser movie, but here they're tasteful and serve a purpose; Betty and Rita (or whatever their names are) are looking for someone to be and somewhere to belong, and mistake sex for the answer to those needs. We've all done that.
'Mulholland Drive" looks, feels and sounds like a distantly remembered dream, the kind that still feels real after you've forgotten what it was about. Composer Angelo Badalamenti contributes his usual sultry, haunting score, and cinematographer Peter Deming gives the movie a bright, Hollywood-style sheen that looks too good to be real, adding to the movie's fantasy quality.
"Mulholland Drive" is not for people who go to movies expecting to arrive at a destination. It might not even be for people who watch movies to enjoy the journey, since it's never clear what kind of journey it is. "Mulholland Drive" might work best for the kind of person who finds freedom in getting lost. If you're one of those people, "Mulholland Drive" is a great ride.