|
|
Mulholland Drive Review
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
***
½ stars
(R)
Friday,
November 2, 2001
Mulholland
Drive
is a maddening but wonderful new movie written and directed by David Lynch, a
man who enjoys giving his audience an innovative glimpse in how he likes to
view the world. Mulholland Drive is Lynch’s epic towards L.A, the
city of dreams and eeriness. The film revolves around a mystery that is left
completely unsolved, a romance between two people who are never seen as the same
identity. The film itself is a dream sequence with missing pieces that can only
be uncovered by the viewer. The film never wakes up from the dream and we are
left with missing pieces to solve. Mulholland is not a film for those who
require logic or like their movies to end to even make literal sense.
The
film is no comparison to 1997’s Lost Highway, where Lynch seemed to be experimenting with narration through the film but it never appealed to anyone.
Lost Highway tried to be clever by toying with us unlike Mulholland. Mulholland
Drive does come together into a stunning, singular and outstanding film that
carries an atmosphere that has never been seen in motion pictures. Some viewers
will crack their head open in order to figure out the puzzle, some may take the
film as it comes, and others will simply walk out of the theater.
The
movie centers around three characters: Betty, a classic, animated, young
attractive girl from Deep River, Ontario who has come to Hollywood to be
discovered as an actress. Rita (A name lifted from a Gilda poster), a
beautiful, statuesque brunet who is suffering from amnesia and is trying to
recover her identity. Finally, Adam, a moody filmmaker being strained by mysterious
gangsters to cast a specific actress in his new film. I have to say that Adam
was my favorite character because he actually shows us how he can lead the
movie. I previously saw him in American Psycho playing Patrick
Bateman’s best friend. In this film he moves silently but strong. He’s one
of the many mysterious actors in the film.
The
first half of Mulholland Drive spotlights around Betty trying to help
Rita regain her memory while Adam is suffering with his filmmaking crisis. The
film does move away from the plot into unusual territories. One such
being a visit to a character that goes by the name of The Cowboy who can provide
information toward Adams predicament. The Cowboy speaks in worrying riddles (If
you do right, you will see me one more time. If you do wrong, you will see me two
more times.”)
One
of the reasons I loved this film so much was the striking beauty of Laura Elena
Harring. She is one of those actresses that I will keep my eye on. Its not the
sex scene or the sexual tension which got me liking her,
it’s the setting she invents with her character of Rita/Camilla. Harring
reminds me of a 1950's heroine gem, a little like Grace Kelly. She gives a
Hitchcock type of performance, and that’s why I like her.
This
is when the film flips itself up side down and scampers into an Alice in
Wonderland type rabbit hole in the form of a blue box, never to return. Mulholland
Drive is an expression of love, fascination, and of course, dreams.
The
film carries a sense of humor, a Lynch type horror, which is seen in the most
ordinary of places and strangely moving experiences. For example, Roy Orbison’s
musical number, Crying, is sung in Spanish in a theater type night club
called Silencio.