Doctor? Yes, I need whatever Lynch is on please...

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2002)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** *** SPOILERS BELOW : DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM ***
I've just spent the last three hours watching Mulholland Drive. Well, I say three hours... what I really mean is two and a bit - the rest of the time I sat there trying to work out what has just happened.
I was, to this point, unfamiliar with Lynch's work. I have seen the odd episode of 'Twin Peaks' but it seemed very complicated and to be honest I couldn't be arsed sitting down and watching something that required me to think. I was also turned off by the Lynchians who praise the work of their messiah often on what seems to be the basis that "it didn't make sense". Well, if something doesn't make sense it's not good by default - it's senseless. It's only good if you can piece it together yourself.

So was I able to piece together this movie? No. I had a good go and I'm sure the answers will come in repeat viewings and as I mull it all over in the days to come, but as the credits rolled, I just thought "erm.... right..."

It's a common misconception that David Lynch works in a number of different levels. He doesn't appear to. I got the impression he works on one level that is interpreted in many different ways. It's the 'Lynch level' and you either love it or hate it. I think I love it. Time will tell.

I've read several of these interpretations now (though thankfully none before I saw the feature) and I simply don't buy the "she was dreaming" scenario. I don't believe a man who created a work as complex and deep as this would throw it away with the 'dream' routine. I think the deaths of both main characters are the key to understanding the hidden depths of what happens...
It's plain that the first couple of hours aren't real, or at least they're not real as we know real. They are both a swipe at the idelisation of Hollywood and (as commonly interpreted) either a masturbatory fantasy dreamt up by a self-delusional suicidal poor actress, or a dream. The swipe at Hollywood I can go with, but the dream? Give Lynch more credit, guys. Are you really suggesting that the 'monster', the 'cowboy', the 'blue box' etc etc are all 'dream elemenets' that you can ultimately ignore? Why? Because you can't work it out?
It's my contention that the first part of the movie is taking place after the suicide we see at the end of the movie. The old people on the plane are spirits who transport her to the afterlife. Think about it - they collect her at the point of her suicide and we see them wishing Diane (now the self-created - or maybe subconciously created 'Betty') good luck as they depart from the airport (the arrival place for new souls?) Rather then a dream, the soul of Diane, as is common with literature and studies into suicidal afterlife theories, is post-physically recreating her life as she would like to have seen it, as per standard theories on Mulholland Drive. She is angry and frustrated that the director character (in real life) got involved with her lover, and the cowboy (along with the people looking for him) are extentions of herself - acting the fantasy she wished she could have....
There's a fuller (and rather lengthy) explanation of all this on the 'Aint It Cool' forum for this film and it's well worth a read. Right now I'm off to ponder some more but I'll sure be watching it many times to come and I can tell it will be one of those that get better everytime you see it.

Great stuff from a uniquely challenging director.