Stunning - Lynch's best movie to date

Rating: Null/10 (29 January 2002)

What a treat this movie is, after all the tat like Harry Potter in the last few months: a mesmerizing adult film with great performances, script, score, editing and direction.
Some people hate this film - they think it's pretentious, and has no narrative drive. Well it's certainly languid, until the last 20 minutes, but if you were a fan of Twin Peaks (both the TV series and Fire, Walk with Me) then Lynch's trademark hypnotic style is hugely enjoyable to experience again. As Kubrick did, he appreciates the significance of silences. Speaking of Twin Peaks, it's good to see the same dwarf (not speaking backwards this time - Lynch is getting too mainstream!), and some other resonances: despair beneath an idyllic veneer, characters with cryptic messages (compare the cowboy with the log lady) and a fabulous Badalamenti score.
The final part of the film, from Club Silencio onwards, is a series of exhilarating gut-punch twists that will take at least two viewings to get your head around fully, and Lynch has 'helpfully' given a series of clues to the mystery to watch out for the second time round. This is not, in any sense, a forgettable movie.