It's Just An Illusion...or is It?

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2005)

I'm not really sure that Mulholland Drive is as complicated and weird as we have been led to believe. Whether there is a story in there or not may not even be relevant. It seems that the film is about reality and illusion and as such the confusion inherent in this is just another aspect of that.
The narrative is split up into a fairly straight forward three act screenplay. Betty goes to Hollywood and meets Rita, albeit in bizarre circumstances. They then try to find out who Rita is. Then the plot is turned on it's head and illusion becomes reality or vice versa. But in fact it doesn't matter which one it is. The point is that the movie plays on the tension between reality and illusion, and what better place to ground this kind of story but the capital of the greatest illusion of all - the movie business.
Lynch just plays around with a straight forward story allowing us to make up our own minds as to what's happening, because in the scheme of things it doesn't matter, the story can mean whatever you want it to mean. That's the beauty of what is at the centre of this film; What is reality and what's illusion? And he still manages to tell a great story
It ain't deep, it ain't meaningful. It's a movie...or is it?