"...and now, I'm in this dream place."

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2018)

As is often the case with a movie I don't understand upon an initial viewing, I head on over to the FAQ page for the film here on IMDb and read what's available to see if there's any kind of analysis or explanation of what happened. That would be an excellent start for anyone curious about this movie. But then, upon a second viewing of this picture the very next day, events in the film, both the dream sequences and reality became much clearer. Not only that, but the way the story was plotted and presented was proven to be downright exceptional. I think "Mullholland Drive" is a mind bending spellbinder that you won't forget long after you've seen it, no matter whether you loved it or hated it.
We get any number of hints in the story that things are not quite what they seem through various scenes and lines of dialog that in retrospect are cleverly placed. I'm going to call Betty/Diane (Naomi Watts) and Rita/Camilla (Laura Harring) by their names implied in the various situations I mention in order to keep things sensible. Recall when Betty asks the stranger taking a shower in her aunt's apartment what her name is. She can't remember, and then gazes thoughtfully at a screen poster of the movie "Gilda". The woman takes the name of it's star, Rita Hayworth, but more significantly, the poster's tag line states "There NEVER WAS a woman like Gilda". Just like there never was a woman called 'Rita'.
Immediately following, Betty relates to Rita how happy she is to be in Hollywood and in her aunt's expensive apartment, and says "...and now I'm in this dream place". When Betty tries to convince Rita that they should follow up on Rita's thought that her real name might be Diane, Betty suggests that they investigate in an undercover fashion - "We'll pretend to be someone else".
Though it may require a complete leap of faith, one needs to consider that the movie's story actually begins when Diane, now on the movie set of the 'Sylvia North Story' as a spectator, sees Camilla kissing director Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux), who's showing her and her co-star how to do the scene. It's at this point when Diane begins to understand that her real life relationship with Camilla is coming to an end and she doesn't like it. Though it seems drastic, Diane hires a hit-man to kill her former lover with the words "This is the girl", which ironically were the same words used by Adam to hire Camilla in the first place while under duress from the Castigliane Brothers and more directly, from the weirdly threatening 'Cowboy' (Monty Montgomery).
Then there are the entire scenarios involving the blue box and it's key, and the interlude at the Silencio. The narrator at the Silencio repeatedly assures his audience that what they see and hear are illusions. With the Betty/Rita, or Diane/Camilla relationship about to hit the rocks, I thought it quite fitting that the Spanish singer offered a rendition of Roy Orbison's 'Crying' (Over You). That was a very nice touch.
There's actually a whole lot more I could probably comment on, but then it would get tedious for the reader, so I'll finish things up by saying that you ought to give this film a try with an open mind, and even be prepared to get confused because the non-linear exposition of events can be troublesome. And on top of that, things are made even more complicated by the random dream events. But for the patient, I think this is a masterful film that deserves one's attentive consideration.