10/10 (Warning: Contains Spoilers. Please be warned!!!)

Rating: 10/10 (10 February 2002)

This film is basically the story of a disturbed actress, Diane, who has been jilted by Hollywood and her girlfriend, Camilla. The first part of the film consists of Diane's dream/hallucination of her alter identity, Betty, who embodies her initial naivete and hope as a young actress coming to Hollywood to find her dream. In Diane's dream, Betty/Diane meets this mysterious woman, Rita, who symbolizes her girlfriend, Camilla, and upon finding that the woman has amnesia, decides to help her find herself (symbolic of the feeling that Diane has that Camilla must not really know who she is if she is leaving their relationship for a man). Throughout the first part of the movie, we follow the two women trying to solve the mystery of sexual/psychological identity which culminates in their sexual joining/completion of self. After an evening at a nightclub where the MC explains how things may not be as they seem, Diane's dream begins to unravel, much the same as a dream unravels, when the dreamer becomes aware that he or she is dreaming.
In her waking, however, her psychosis still remains (just as in the beginning of the film when Rita says that she had hoped that sleep would cure her insomnia). At this point, we realize that Betty no longer exists, and that Diane is the Hollywood jilted and jaded remains of that wide-eyed girl. In reality, Camilla/Rita has left Diane/Betty for a director of the film in which Diane had desperately wanted to be cast. Instead, Camilla got the role, causing a rift between the two women. Diane's waking world is delusional and paranoid. Eventually, she is driven to have Camilla/Rita murdered (the scene where the murder plan takes place is a place where a monster broods in the dumpster, perhaps the monster is Diane).
Diane's world is filled with guilt, anger, and jealous torment, which splits her identity and reality into slivers of a mirror so shattered, she is unable to see where she begins and Betty/Camilla/Rita end.
A great film, expertly directed, with performances that are precise and confident. The two leads are completely in sync with Lynch's vision and know exactly where the twists and turns lead. Naomi Watts displays such diversity and confidence in the role of Diane/Betty that one can't help being intrigued and attracted to her. She is PURE GOLD. This is a movie not to be missed, and a second viewing probably improves its flavor. Mulholland Drive is an exhilarating journey down the treacherous roads of Hollywood.