Mulholland Drive was confusing but suspenseful. I watched it last night and re-read the reviews written by Rek and JDI – which made more sense now. This is a difficult movie to write a review on, but I will make an attempt.
Honestly, I could not understand what was happening during the 147 minutes of the film. It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle where you think you have identified the pieces and where they should be positioned but the pieces begin to change dynamically and the more you think you have understood, the more confusing it gets.
Have you ever tried drawing a line in sand or shooting a moving target? Watching Mulholland Drive gives you the same feeling of frustration, determination and excitement. Add to that the suspense is killing. And mind you I was straining at every detail and listening to every dialogue (I had the close captioned turned on) so that I would not miss anything but I finally came to the conclusion that there are no clear cut answers – the movie was meant to be vague and abstract.
This movie was released in Oct’2001 and directed by David Lynch.
The Plot:
The following are the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle:
Piece # 1:
A gorgeous woman (Laura Harring) gets involved in a car accident by a bunch of teenagers, manages to escape and ends up sleeping in a house whose owner is just leaving town.
Piece # 2:
Two guys are sitting at a diner (Pinkie’s) and one of them is relating his nightmare which takes place at this very diner. The guy wants to walk through his nightmare in living daylight so that he can overcome it. The nightmare ends with an ugly grotesque character with a burnt face – this scene is one of the best.
Piece # 3:
Betty – a charming blond gets off from the plane and enters Los Angeles. She is a wannabe actress and is going to stay at the apartment left by her Aunt Ruth. This is the same apartment where Rita is spending her time and both our heroines meet.
Piece # 4:
A young director – Adam is being forced to hire a girl by the name of Camille Rhodes as the heroine for his next film. The pressure is coming from the mob. Adam refuses, his directorial movie gets shelved and upon reaching home – he finds his wife in bed with the pool man and he gets thrown out with no money.
Piece # 5:
A hired gun is talking to a fat guy in a cramped office and the conversation refers to a black notebook whereupon the hired gun kills the fat guy and then goes on a shooting spree killing two more witnesses in the process.
Rita has a purse with $50, 000 and a blue key. Betty goes for an audition and she excels in the scene given to her. Rita and Betty try to gather more information about Rita’s background – end up going to an apartment where they see the corpse of a dead girl. They then fall in love with each other and after a bout of steamy lesbian lovemaking they visit a club called Silencio and end up leaving with a blue box.
During the rest of the movie all the pieces and the characters start mingling and that is when it starts getting confusing. But there is a method to this madness.
The lovemaking scene (for those who may have missed it in India because of censorship)
Betty: “Have you ever done this before?”
Rita: “I don’t know - have you”
Betty: “I want to, with you, I am in love with you”
The last one-hour or so is like a roller-coaster ride – you are not sure what is real and what is illusion but you keep watching nonetheless.
The Performances:
# Naomi Watts as Betty Elms / Diane Selwyn – she gave a very convincing performance. More details about her performance would kill the story and the suspense. But this was her film all the way. Her best scene was the audition.
# Laura Harring as Rita / Camille Rhodes – she is worth drooling. (But I was so scared watching the movie, I dare not drool). Most of her acting was done through her facial expressions and gorgeous body.
# Justin Theroux as Adam Kesher - the director who refused to bow to the mob and finds his personal life in shambles. His was an eccentric performance.
# The Cowboy. He was a mysterious character but made his presence felt with his dialogue to Adam: ’’If you do what you’re told, you’ll see me one more time, If you don’t do what you’re told, you’ll see me two more times.’’ (The significance of this was lost on me)
Each of the supporting roles were well defined and equally well performed.
The Photography was excellent – especially some of the suspenseful shots and the best shot was after finding the dead women’s body – both Betty and Rita run out of the apartment and the screen freezes in slow motion. That was sheer brilliant cinematography.
The Music was effective especially the Spanish rendition of Roy Orbinsons “Crying”. It added to the overall eeriness.
Mulholland Drive was initially planned as a 100 episode TV series for ABC. This film has traces of TV filming, especially a feeling of moving from episode to episode.
I would highly recommend this movie. If at first you do not understand – keep watching it repeatedly. It is entertaining and is good fodder for the gray matter.
Happy viewing.