DVD Movies: Mulholland Drive DVD Movie

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The film most certainly does "make sense" and follows a completely rational and logistically valid plot structure. The film begins with a stylized jitterbug contest behind the opening credits, showing Naomi Watt's character (Diane Selwyn) winning a trip to LA from her native Canada to tryout for a Hollywood production. We then see the suggestion of a sleeping figure (Diane again) in red sheets prior to the start of her dream, which opens with the hypnotic figure of a limosine traveling down a dark road, containing Diane's idealization of her real-life paramour, Camilla Rhodes. In reality, Camilla is Diane's former lesbian lover, who betrayed her by stealing the coveted role in the film Diane unsuccessfully tried out for, and spurned her affections for the director of the film. Diane is so jealous and infuriated that she hires a hitman to kill Camilla; when the two meet to discuss the deal, the hitman says he will leave a blue key on her coffee table to signify that Camilla has been successfully dispatched. Diane film's dream sequence begins after Diane has received the key, and Diane's fantasies of a happier outcome are manifest in what we see.

In her dream, she is her idealized self, free of insecurities, more innocent and charismatic--nailing her tryout for the film, but explaining "Camilla's" victory by the influence of the mafia ("Camilla" in the dream is replaced by a woman whom the real-life Camilla tauntingly kisses at a party to infuriate Diane). Other characters who represent real-life counterparts also resurface in the dream, in various roles: "Coco," played by Ann Miller, is actually the film director's mother, the man terrified of the ghoul behind Winkie's is an accomplice of Diane's hired hitman, and the mafiosos played by Dan Hedaya and Angelo Badalamenti were other attendees of the humiliating party where Camilla taunts Diane with news of her engagement to the director. In the dream, Diane refashions her hitman as a bungling idiot who botches Camilla's murder, subsequently leaving Camilla helpless with amnesia for who she is or where she came from so that "Betty," Diane's counterpart in the dream, can become her heroine, and have a utopian, romantic love affair with her.

Throughout the dream, omens occur that suggest the truth behind Diane's fantasy; the forboding man behind Winkie's, Lee Grant's wacko Cassandra-character with her warnings of trouble, the Cowboy, and the MC at the late-night Cabaret who insists that all is not as it seems. The blue key becomes expressionistically rendered in the dream, and opens the proverbial Pandora's Box, at which time Diane mysteriously disappears from her own dream, leaving Camilla alone to open the box--and then Lynch imposes a couple of his haunting frame shifts, here done with lighting effects, before the Cowboy enters Diane's bedroom, telling her "it's time to wake up, pretty girl."

Now we see Diane's reality when she awakens, and evidence of her crushing guilt (notice her initial relief when she hallucinates that Camilla has returned from the dead, and her subsequent breakdown when she realizes the truth). Eventually, the gravity of what she has done overwhelms her when she realizes that the police want her for questioning, and the old couple from her dream, whom I presume represent her conscience, are released by the demon behind Winkie's (that is, she loses her sanity). Her demons chase her to her bedroom, where she hysterically grabs a gun from her nightstand, and takes her own life.

Check out Lynch's clues--there's much more to them than what I've included here. He's a master--I don't think he produces a frame of film without agonizing over it for weeks, and I highly doubt someone who produced something as lovingly detailed as this film let any inconsistencies or gaffes slip past him. What a movie this is--I'll never forget it.

After his surprisingly successful experiment with sentimental American heartland drama in "The Straight Story," director David Lynch returns with panache to the psycho-surreal territory he has claimed as his own. "Mulholland Drive" creates a new neighborhood in Lynchville bordered closely by "Fire Walk With Me" and "Lost Highway," and echoes of those two films are heard throughout "Mulholland Drive." Here are eerie archetypal messengers, an illusionist, mysterious puzzles and keys, an inexplicable corpse, malignant evil, and the most terrifying of dreams.

Lynch's cast is, as usual, excellently suited to the strange goings-on. The three leads give subtly nuanced performances and are surrounded at all times by a number of excellent supporting actors. Dan Hedaya and Robert Forster have very small parts, as do Michael J. "Twin Peaks" Anderson, Ann Miller (a veteran of old Hollywood), and Lynch's longtime musical collaborator Angelo Badalamenti--but all of them add a wonderful spice to their scenes. Richard Green as the Magician and Layfayette Montgomery as the Cowboy both create defining and unforgettable Lynch characters.

Two other spectacular features of the film bear mentioning. First is the soundtrack, which does a great deal to enhance the film's mood, from Badalamenti's typically brooding numbers and supporting tunes by Lynch and John Neff to the heartrending performance of Roy Orbison's "Crying" sung in Spanish, a capella, by Rebekah Del Rio. Second is the delicious non-linear plot, evoking inevitable associations with "Lost Highway." Anyone who had trouble with "Lost Highway," however, should not stay away from "Mulholland Drive." While one cannot promise that "Mulholland Drive" will be easier to swallow, comparing the two films will certainly do much to illuminate the exquisite madness of Lynch's method.

1. FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE MOVIE STARTED:
Oh, I wasn't looking forward to this one. Not a fan of Lynch am I. Bored senseless by "Blue Velvet" and "The Elephant Man". Found "Twin Peaks" intriguing, at times stunning, but ultimately vacuous. And the "Straight Story" made me quite sad, but confused me too. Have already planned my escape route out of the theatre, in case boredom sets in before the half hour mark.

2. THE FIRST TWO HOURS:
An over-the-top pretentious opening, that I realize is supposed to be over-the-top and pretentious. A really good start. Ooh, look at that car crash! Lynch captures the power of steel on steel much better than Cronenberg ever could. And now we meet the two girls. Laura Harring (Rita) and Naomi Watts (Betty; she's from Deep River, Ontario, which got a nice chuckle at my Toronto screening) are both sexy, while being two halves of the same coin. The former, dark and mysterious. The latter, light and innocent. They're both great.

Uh-oh. There are a couple of scenes that just don't fit. Who were those two guys at the restaurant? And what the heck did they just see in the back alley? I'll admit this, though: it was terrifically frightening. A viscerally charged moment. And then we get a scene of botched burglary that keeps going wrong. And who the heck are the Castigliane brothers, and what do they have against espresso? The Little Man from "Twin Peaks" has a cameo, just to remind you that you were watching a David Lynch movie. Yeah, like I could ever forget that. So now we're wrapped up in a weird mystery plot, surrounded by a surreal Hollywood (What year is this? 1950? 2001?).

Now for the lesbian scenes. Coolly erotic, although out of place and creepy somehow. I bet this is intentional.

And on we go to Club Silencio. You must have heard about this scene. A master of ceremonies tells us, to our faces, that all we are about to see (and, by association, all we have seen) is pre-recorded, fake, phony. To prove this, a trumpeter comes out to play a few notes, only when the trumpet drops to his side, the music plays on. Ah. And now, out comes Rebekah Del Rio. She's going to sing Roy Orbison's "Crying" in Spanish. Oh my god, this is heartbreaking. And then...(!) I'll not ruin the surprise. Probably my favourite scene from any movie this year. It's supremely appealing on an intellectual *and* an emotional level.

And then the Pandora's box opens, and the movie...

3. THE LAST HALF HOUR:

...gets really weird. I'm trying to keep up. My brain is working overtime. Who is that? Is she still Betty? Is she still Rita? Is this all a dream? An amnesiacal remembrance? The visual style and tone of the first half carries forth, only it's all a lot more sinister and surreal. The narrative falls away, to be replaced by a dream-like state. Full-disclosure: dream-like states in movies always feel like self-indulgence to me. The filmmaker obviously couldn't find a cohesive ending, so they throw random images against the wall hoping they will stick. That's usually my take. Here, for some reason, I was into playing along with Lynch's game. Big time.

Okay, so now the credits are rolling. And it all kind of makes sense, but not really. I think I'll take a walk to clear my head.

4. THE LONG WALK HOME FORM THE THEATRE:

It's starting to crystallize. She was also she, and that was also that, and they were this, and this was that (oh how I wish I could give you the details along with the above sentence; but that would surely spoil your fun). And yet, some things are just too cloudy to forgive.

5. DISSECTING IT WITH MY ROOMMATE:

She had just seen the movie the day before I. We talked for a long while, piecing together the puzzle. Ah! Now I get it. It actually makes a whole lot of sense.

POSTSCRIPT:

Here's my advice. Never think of "Mulholland Drive" as having a standard narrative. It doesn't. Never mind that characters come and go without rhyme or reason (Robert Forster and Dan Hedaya, two fantastic character actors, have two scene and two lines between them!). Try not to think of its genesis as a TV pilot. It never would have worked as an open-ended narrative. It only works thematically, symbolically (I suspect others out there caught the obvious visual reference to Bergman's "Persona"?), and viscerally. And when I say "works", I mean it. This one's a stunner, folks. A pure, cinematic stunner.