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Mulholland Drive
***1/2
Cinema Releases - January 4, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 18. 146
minutes. Written and directed by David Lynch. Starring Naomi Watts, Laura
Elena Harring, Justin Theroux, Melissa Crider, Ann Miller, Dan
Hedaya.
David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive"
drifts into plots threads, seems to be moving them somewhere and then scatters
them into the realm of dreams. It begins with somewhat unsettling editing,
proceeds like it's going to set up a coherent story, peppers the procession
with odd moments and gets gradually odder, finally deciding to throw logic
out the window and just pounce around in our imaginations.
The film begins with a car moving slowly across
a Los Angeles highway. There is a crash. A survivor stumbles out of the car
and falls asleep a few blocks away, in an apartment block garden. She's a
beautiful brunette who doesn't remember a thing. Cut to a blonde from out
of town who has come to California with dreams of stardom; she meets the
amnesiac, makes friends with her and tries to help find her identity. Cut
to a film director who's having problems with the studio, the wife and the
mob.
There are cutaways to other characters -- some
witty, some challenging, some erotic, some frightening. We see an elderly
couple laughing maniacally -- with joy, or with madness? A man meets with
his psychiatrist to tell of nightmares of a creature lurking behind his local
diner. A hilarious vignette introduces us to a hitman who tries to pull off
a small job and lets it run way out of control. The film director meets with
a cowboy who mixes homespun advice with philosophical questions and twists
them both into threats. The starlet and the anonymous woman find themselves
in a bizarre mime theatre where the performers shove illusion in the faces
of the patrons until they just can't take it anymore.
The film lays out all these threads, and starts
to bring them together, and then launches itself off the rails. People will
be discussing this movie for years, trying to understand it, and they will
be entirely missing the point. The climax, which I will not describe, does
find some kind of visceral truth, or if not truth, then at least flow --
it is impossible, however, to unravel it logically, and if there's a point,
then that is it.
What I'm trying to say is that "Mulholland Drive"
leaves us unsure of what just happened, but nonetheless affected. It's the
kind of movie that splits audiences and critics, because the timidity of
modern cinema trains us to expect obvious answers, and this film spirals
mystery into further mystery, offering riddles instead of conclusions. We
can't quite comprehend it in any conventional way, but it nonetheless holds
power over us. Some will resent that and become frustrated; for the rest
of us, it's one of the reasons we go to the movies.
"Mulholland Drive" does not make sense. That does
not mean it is nonsense. Lynch is an experienced director, well aware of
how to make an aesthetically interesting film, and here he uses his skill
to hold our attention without letting us know why, and scare us without letting
us know what we're scared of. "Mulholland Drive" has an atmosphere of intrigue
and menace bubbling under the surface, which sometimes oozes out through
violence and music. Above all though, it is a fascinating puzzle. Those who
say they hate the movie will nonetheless have to admit that they can't shake
it.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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