Review: Mulholland Drive (2001)

Mulholland Drive stands as yet another fascinatingly mysterious entry into his eclectic filmography. Part noir, part romance, part psychological thriller and part back stage drama, the film blends and mixes genres into a dreamlike tapestry that defies convention in a way that only David Lynch can.

His Oscar nomination for Best Director is richly deserved, as he takes a seemingly idyllic and perfect world, and slowly peels away the shiny veneer and reveals the strange, frightening creature that lurks underneath. In a way, the first four fifths of the film play as a rather straightforward noir mystery, where Naomi Watts' bright eyed and bushy tailed Betty Elms, a girl with dreams of becoming an actress, runs into a beautiful amnesic woman played by Laura Harring. Betty takes the woman, who calls herself Rita (after seeing a poster for Rita Hayworth's Gilda), and tries her best to decipher 'Rita's' identity, while falling in love with Rita.

Parallel to this, is the story of Justin Theroux's director Adam Kesher, who is directing 'The Sylvia North' story, only to have it commandeered by apparent Mafia dons. His wife is having an affair with a pool cleaner (Billy Ray Cyrus), and his credit line is cut off. This plot line doesn't really connect with the two girls, but helps provide another look at LA, since we see Watts' scoring an audition, while at the same time Theroux is loosing control over his project. One's success is contrasted by another's failure.

And then the final fifth of the film happens, and the film spirals into a disturbing fever dream, where Watts is now the lonely, bitter Diane Selwyn, a failed actress who lusts after Camilla Rhodes, played by Laura Harring, a famed and respected actress who rose to fame with The Sylvia North Story. In many ways, this sequence plays like a dark deconstruction of the first portion of the film, and may actually be the reality of Betty/Diane's life. Where's in the first portion of the film, Betty's success is like something straight out of a Hollywood fantasy. Everything goes perfectly for her, and she manages to bag a ludicrously attractive woman dependent on her, and even manages to bed her. However, in the final fifth, Diane is a lonely woman who strives for greatness, only to constantly loose it to the more attractive, successful and sexual Camilla. This interpretation (that the first 4/5 of the film is a dream by Diane from the final fifth), is one I personally subscribe to, although, due to the supremely dreamlike and obscure nature of the film (and Lynch's refusal to explain anything), means that anybody can come up with their own interpretation, and it'd be probably just as valid.

I found this film to be fascinatingly obtuse, and when coupled by Watts' and Harring's performances, which were both Oscar worthy, it makes it a film I really want to revisit and analyze and reinterpret in the future.

5 out of 5.