Sad, strange mystery about heartbreak and loss

Rating: 9/10 (6 November 2006)

I have read literally dozens of differing views as to what this story is really about, and the significance of various details. Without recapping the plot at length, it tells the apparently simple story of an eager young aspiring actress arriving in Hollywood, hoping to find stardom, and getting drawn into a baffling and eerie mystery. There are many typically odd David Lynch touches and peculiar characters, events ,the meaning of which is unclear, and dialogue that can best be described as unenlightening. SPOILERS AHEAD: The core of the movie is Naomi Watts' character Betty/Diane, and her performance is simply overwhelming. I have seldom been as moved as during two scenes with her lover Rita/Camilla ,played by the stunning Laura Elena Harring. The first is the tender and sensuous love scene ,that shows the desire, hesitation and hope of someone desperately in love with someone who may not fully return that love. The yearning for love and acceptance is tangible in that scene, and is breathtaking in its simple beauty. The other great scene with the two ill fated lovers is their witnessing of the heartrending solo by the female vocalist at the strange nightclub Silencio. As the two women begin to weep at the impassioned song of sorrow and loss, and the realization that their own doomed relationship is at an end, many viewers will find themselves shedding tears as well. It is an overpowering scene of the pain of lost love, and the end of a dream. It's almost too much for the viewer to bear, so much have we come to care about these two women. It's the spooky visuals and strange, unsettling characters that the movie is best known for, but at the very heart of the movie is this theme of love and loss, and that is what gives it its power to hold the audience in its strange spell.