Lynch's Mind-Spinning Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2002)

If you've never seen a David Lynch film, you've never seen the kind of disorienting and hypnotic power film can be capable of. There's no other director like him, no other filmmaker who creates disquiet, illusion, and an uncomfortable atmosphere as he does. In Mullholland Dr., Lynch's most complex work to date, he has fashioned all of the ideas that intrigued in Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, and Lost Highway into a maddening, surrealistic, and dreamlike tapestry; the audience may or may not know what's happening, but they are glued to the screen trying logically fit the pieces of the puzzle into an understandable fusion.
I realize I've said nothing about the plot of the film, because its so labyrinthine and mind-boggling that it can't be described justifiably in a single review. The basic storyline however, begins with an actress (Laura Harring) about to be killed by her drivers on Mulholland Dr when a speeding car collides with her limo, leaving her with amnesia. At the same time, Betty (Watts), an aspiring actress oozing sweetness arrives in Los Angeles from Canada. They meet at her apartment, and Betty attempts to help "Rita" (a name she adopts from a movie poster) regain her identity.
Lynch outdoes himself in such cryptic, confusing, sometimes hilarious, but most often odd scenes as a mafioso/film producer spews out his espresso while his partner inexplicably yells out, "Help me! Help me!"a jealous director coats his cheating wife's jewelry in pink paint, and an evening excursion to a nightclub that climaxes with a heartbreaking rendition of a Roy Orbison song in Spanish.
The first 2 hours or so of the movie seem conspicuously solvable, but t a point during all of the story shifts or unravels. Identities change, some characters disappear, reappear, simply don't come back at all, or maybe become one. The audience feels jerked around, manipulated, but intrigued by it all. Logically, we want to know what is going on and try to put all of the pieces together. There are so many pieces however, that it is nearly impossible to look at the proceedings in a logical sense.
This film is not for those who want a straightforward story with a beginning, conflicts, heroes and villains that might as well have name tags on them, or resolutions with a neat and tidy ending. They key to getting any kind of understanding is to simply let it flow through you the first time you watch it (multiple viewings are required, as with most Lynch films) and understand that much of it is dreamlike, so as with dreams, may have happened or may not have. You may get it of you may not. Regardless, it's a fascinating and recommendable journey that's been masterfully created by David Lynch.
9 out of 10