Digging into the mystery

Rating: Null/10 (13 June 2003)

This movie has been out for two years now, so I hate to call anything said herein a "spoiler," but just the same... be warned.
I want to remind anyone foolish enough to read this that Twin Peaks was given an ending for foreign markets that bore little resemblance to the series. So drawing too many conclusions based on a reworked pilot is not productive. But, one thing no one ever seems to mention is the opening sequence of dancers (jitter-buggers???). I thought it was a clue right off the bat, and the liner notes to the DVD confirm my suspicion. Viewers will notice dancers dancing next to themselves. This isn't just a trick used by a cheap production. It's a clue. Parallel lives are colliding.
I was just re-watching Mulholland Dr., trying to see if my theory still holds up, and it does. This movie has little to do with dreams per se. This film is, in fact, a sort of "It's A Wonderful Life," done Lynch-style. "Rita" should have died in the accident. Instead, she is shown a Hollywood fantasy version of what her life could be like. In her vision of the future, she finds someone who is willing to help her, and in the process, the two uncover the blue box, signifying that "Rita" has learned her lesson and can return to fix the course of her life as Camilla.
Naomi Watts as Diane represents a woman given the same key to changing her life, but cannot find the way to use it. Just as Dan, the freaked-out guy at Winkies, repeats the same mistake from his "dream," so Diane cannot learn another path to save herself from her cycle. Think of the Cowboy's comments to Adam. "If you do what you're told, you'll see me one more time,' the cowboy says calmly. "If you don't do what you're told, you'll see me two more times." Camilla rescues herself; Diane is trapped in a sinister Groundhog Day, her parallel lives colliding like the jitter-buggers who dance into themselves in the opening sequence.
Not everyone will agree. Nor do I want them to. But what an amazing film to remain shrouded in mystery for so long. After all, when is the last time a movie made you think anything besides "There's two hours of life I'll never get back."