A master chef - but a Chinese meal of a movie

Rating: Null/10 (3 March 2002)

Mulholland Drive is a long and twisting road through the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains, and this film has as many twists and turns as the road. It is not however as scenic, nor does it give such a good view of LA, or Hollywood, the dream factory. The first hour and a bit hangs together reasonably well, but then there is a paradigm shift  the characters assume different identities and we seem to be in a different story. The second story is wrapped up, sort of but what about the first? If it's a dream, it's a lot to watch without an ending.
David Lynch is obviously a real smartarse. It's as if he was giving a class on how to out-Hitchcock Hitchcock. His use of slow walks with the camera and spooky music to build up suspense is terrific and he is great at injecting humor into unlikely places; there are some really funny moments. Betty's first screen test is a hoot. In fact there are lots of Tarantino-style magic moments. The film is replete with references to greats of the film noir genre - it is a very film-literate piece. The two main protagonists, Betty the wide-eyed ingenue and 'Rita' the amnesia victim are vividly portrayed by Naomi Watts and Laura Harring. The trouble is you have be a smartarse yourself to appreciate the movie. I suppose mind-games can be entertaining, and this movie is filled with incident, but despite its length I walked out feeling it was a Chinese meal of a movie  the need for entertainment was not satisfied for very long.