Excellent Lynchian routine - the twin of "Lost highway"

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2010)

This movie is another surreal piece of art by David Lynch, but it's not as great as the amazing and twisted "Lost highway" or the wonderful "Twin Peaks" series. Those movies ore episode are simply over the top. But it is still a movie that is more intense, intelligent and surprising than most of the other so called psycho thrillers and is worth a ten star vote.
A little advice: You must also watch "Lost highway", because this movie is like a twin of this unique masterpiece! Now, let us begin with the bad points, because there aren't very much. This movie is not as twisted, surreal and surprising than "Lost highway". That doesn't mean that you might be able to understand it when you have just watched it once, but your not that literally lost as in "Lost highway". I also think that this movie copies the structure of "Lost highway" a lot and is less innovating. There is also a slow paced beginning, then a key event, the looking for the truth beyond dream and reality, the sudden change and the twisted ending connecting the end of the movie with its beginning. With the scenes of the house party in the ending, Lynch gives a lot of possible solutions and keys to the viewer and doesn't let him or her just stunning and without any clue like in his previous work. But if you think by now that this movie is easy to understand than David Lynch gives you such a strange element in the last scene of the movie that makes you desperate and that makes you think that you are back in "Eraserhead". But why should Lynch change his style after he had created a true masterpiece a few years ago? We should just see those points as minor critic points. It is not an ten plus extra star masterpiece but just an excellent ten star movie.
Now, there is another negative point that I have to mention in a more general way: David Lynch wanted to start a new series around "Mulholland Drive" and this would have been such a great experience as "Twin Peaks" was or even better and David Lynch put all his creative imagination and dedicated a part of himself to the project - but Americas blockbuster-minded, easy-watching-commercialized Hollywood bosses didn't believe in a success and didn't accord the necessary amounts to one of their genius - the series might not have been popular and a good sell. That's why David Lynch was never able to finish his dream of a new series and we might have never seen parts of his filming if some French investors wouldn't have supported him and convinced him to make at least a movie out of his filming. David Lynch got financial support and an open-minded entourage and that's why he turned some new scenes, worked out a slightly new screenplay and created this new movie. A big thank you to the French supporters and thumps down towards the American film industry which let fall one of their best talents. And maybe all those complicated circumstances are the reason why Lynch made cartoons and worked as a producer in the next years and we had to wait seven years before he came back with the low-budget semi-masterpiece "Inland Empire", it's a really sad thing.
Now, let's talk about the very positive parts of the movie. It has a little bit less dark atmosphere in the beginning than "Lost highway", but there is a key event and some action right after the introduction that make this movie easier to watch - the "accident" on the Mulholland Drive. But after this happen some really strange scenes that create a really thrilled atmosphere and that make the viewer of that movie think, guess and analyze - the strange old couple, the guy who has strange nightmares, the killer who's doing some stupid mistakes... There are many interesting details in this movie, even more than in "Lost highway" and the viewer becomes somehow an analyzer or detective. This movie requests multiple viewings and personally, I discover new elements after each viewing and I have seen the movie at least three or four times by now and it wasn't the last time. You really see that Lynch was supposed to do a series with this one because of all the well thought details.
"Mulholland Drive" lives also from the great acting of the two feminine main actors, especially the really charming Naomi Watts who does the job of her life. Every character is unique in this movie even the smaller roles like the nightmare guy and this point is even done better and more intense than in "Lost highway". Only the role of the cowboy has a lot of similarities to the role of the mystery man in "Lost highway", it is just a pity that he has not much space in this movie.
And there is the same advice that I gave for "Lost highway": expect the unexpected! That may not be as clear in the first three quarters of the movie, it is less disturbing that other works of Lynch, but in the last one, you should better be prepared for some weird stuff that was worth the wait. I agree with critics who say that this movie has a certain Lynchian routine - but his routine is far away from being boring and especially the final thirty minutes should convince you! So, if you want to see a movie that makes work your mind and feelings, a movie you must concentrate on and that may request multiple viewings to understand, you will really appreciate this one. If you're looking for an easy movie for a DVD night with some friends - go for something else, because your party people might get frightened!