Pretentious Claptrap

Rating: 3/10 (27 May 2002)

I kept wondering how much money the film made, hoping that if it did poorly the outcome would be that no one would ever give David Lynch the money to make a film again. I've been an anti-fan of his since Twin Peaks went the way of all Lynch projects, into pseudo-artiness and clunky mythos.
Naomi Watts gave a great performance I thought, but what a laughable rediculous predictable script.
So you take John Waters, remove sense of humor and irony, inject pretentions of artistry and, voila, David Lynch. When John Waters has actors acting woodenly, he does so with tongue in cheek. Lynch seems indifferent to acting, as if he thinks photography and symbolism are all that are required. Someone should tell him he is not the American Ingmar Bergman, though he seems to wish he was.
He should probably be filming television commercials or music videos.
Come on, the hideous face and the guy that drops dead at the sight of it... what the hell was that supposed to be? A reference to satan? To the nightmare of existence, or just an emblem of Lynch's unconscious?

Phooey!