Surprisingly funny

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2002)

*********************This review contains spoilers********************** Definitely a film that needs to be viewed more than once in order to fully appreciate its many layers. Probably the lightest of all Lynch's films, Mulholland Drive is surprisingly funny, though of course it also contains the trademark nightmare-inducing sequences that you would expect. The funniest scenes include a robbery where the body count spirals out of control and the sequence where the film director (Justin Theroux, Louis' cousin) finds his wife in bed with the pool guy (played by Billy Ray Cyrus!). The best theory I've read to try and explain the shifts in identity and location would be that the majority of the film is a dream by a failed would-be actress who came to L.A. with hopes of being 'discovered' and that only at the end of the film does she wake up. This theory would also help to explain some of the strange acting at the beginning of the film. Watts, a relative unknown , carries the film admirably. Some of the film suffers slightly by characters being introduced never to appear again, an unfortunate hangover of the film's origins as a pilot for a TV series. If the pilot material was written before Lynch made 'The Straight Story': which represented a major shift in tone, it is interesting to consider what he will do next: will he return to non-typical material like 'The Straight Story' or will he continue in the manner to which we have become accustomed.