Film Review: Mulholland Drive (2001)

David Lynch divides audience into two factions – those who view him as an artistic genius whose every work is undisputed masterpiece and those who view him as a hack whose work is cinematic equivalent of manure sold to pretentious art snobs. Lynch’s filmography, depending on each individual titles, gave arguments to both camps. His 2001 film Mulholand Drive, on the other hand, is likely to bring viewers just in the middle between those two extremes.

Plot is set in Los Angeles and begins when mysterious dark-haired woman (played by Laura Harring) who survived car crash in Mulholland Drive wanders into apparently abandoned apartment. There she is found by Betty Elms (played by Naomi Watts), aspiring actress who recently came to the city in order to pursue Hollywood career. Woman, who is apparently amnesiac, names herself “Rita” and with Betty’s help begins the quest to discover her true identity. In the meantime, film director Adam Kesher (played by Justin Theroux) is coerced by gangsters to cast actress Camilla Rhodes (played by Melissa George) for her next project.

Mulholland Drive originated as the pilot for television series with which Lynch had hoped to repeat success of Twin Peaks. The pilot failed and series was never produced, but Lynch instead decided to rework into standalone feature film, originally shown at Cannes Film Festival where Lynch got Best Director Award. The film, at least in its first part, clearly shows that Lynch has great talent and he masterfully creates atmosphere of mystery and dread, helped by very good musical score by Angelo Badalamenti. Lynch also shows great skill in alternating between extremely attractive sights (many of which exploit beauty of Naomi Watts and Laura Harring) and those that are revolting to most audience. However, all the good work Lynch did is almost wasted with the series of “clever” plot twist in the second half which make entire plot completely incomprehensible. This makes Mulholland Drive one of the most disappointing films of 21st Century. Much of the film flaws, however, are due to story, originally intended for thirty or so one-hour episodes, is unnaturally squeezed into feature film format. Lynch, despite his claims that he intended for the viewers to make their own conclusions, gives impression that he actually wanted to say something coherent or even important, probably about dark side of Hollywood and huge contrast between its glamour and corruption. In any case, Mulholland Drive is and will probably continue to be highly regarded by Lynch’s fans, but the rest of the audience would be, at best, impressed with Lynch’s technical skills and disastisfied with this film not living to its potentials.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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