Mulholland Drive

Buy This Item Mulholland Drive by Universal Studios  Available from Amazon  $11.99  on 11-16-2008     Pandora couldn't resist opening the forbidden box containing all the delusions of mankind, and let's just say David Lynch, in <I>Mulholland Drive</I>, indulges a similar impulse. Employing a familiar film noir atmosphere to unravel, as he coyly puts it, "a love story in the city of dreams," Lynch establishes a foreboding but playful narrative in the film's first half before subsuming all of Los Angeles and its corrupt ambitions into his voyeuristic universe of desire. Identities exchange, amnesia proliferates, and nightmare visions are induced, but not before we've become enthralled by the film's two main characters: the dazed and sullen femme fatale, Rita (Laura Elena Harring), and the pert blonde just-arrived from Ontario (played exquisitely by Naomi Watts) who decides to help Rita regain her memory. Triggered by a rapturous Spanish-language version of Roy Orbison's "Crying," Lynch's best film since <I>Blue Velvet</I> splits glowingly into two equally compelling parts. <I>--Fionn Meade</I> Reader Reviews This movie is absolutely brilliant. This review is a complete spoiler. One should resist the temptation to analyze every detail of this film because i do not think they all have symbolic meaning. This is because the first half of the movie is a dream. And while many things in dreams are symbolic, many are nonsensical items created by one's subconscious. they will drive you nuts when you try to analyze them. This is evidenced by the apparent role reversals within the film. I cannot possibly count the number of times i have had dreams where someone i know is not "being themself". These types of dreams, personally, have two manifestations. Either the person is not aware (but i am) that they are not "being themself" OR the person is actually someone other than their real life persona and we are both unaware of it... until i wake up. The first situation is easy to interpret: i have some issue with this person and i feel that they are not behaving like themself or acting like a phony. The latter situation is much more difficult to interpret probably because, for all its mysteriousness, there is not much to interpret. The dream portion of this movie shows Diane as Betty, which is Diane in her idealized self. It also portrays her lover/friend, Rita, as an amnesiac. Only late in the film (reality) do we see Rita as a former lover, who has obviously spurned Diane for a new flame. Adam the director. The amnesia aspect could likely be interpreted as Diane's perception that Rita has forgotten where she comes from. More importantly, she has moved on romantically and has also forgotten about Diane. There is a monster with a blue box. The monster could represent a number of things or nothing at all aside from a good shock. The box is surely an allusion to Pandora. It fits when you realize that this movie is, mainly, a scathing criticism of Hollywood. We all know the story...Pandora, beautiful and seductive, is the mythological alpha woman. She was warned, by Zeus, to keep the box closed. Ignoring the warning, she opened the box (or jar) and released all the world's evils. Same with the movie. It is as if Lynch is warning young, would-be actresses about Hollywood. When the blue box is opened, the movie does an about face and plenty of evils are unleashed as Diane is awakened from her dream. In reality, she is obsessed, psychotic, and suicidal. She has failed in Hollywood and is rapidly descending into its underbelly. She is waiting tables at the restaurant she dreamed of. She has lost her lover Rita (who is now Camilla). The essential scene of this movie is the party overlooking Los Angeles. Roles reversed, everyone is pretty much portrayed as being a whore. Adam, the director, has sold out to the Hollywood production machine. Coco is giving Diane snobbish looks that say "you are such a loser". Rita/Camilla is sadistically rubbing her success and her new romances in Diane's face. She kisses her new female lover (dream Camilla) and her lipstick smears all over her mouth....in the middle of a dinner party. The sleaze is absolutely tangible. Diane is trying not to crack. As a result of all this, Diane has Camilla killed which subsequently drives her mad and she commits suicide. You really feel sorry for her. This was the first time i had ever seen Naomi Watts and she was brilliant. It's a great role because it requires the actor to play very emotional, polar opposites of the character... and Watts makes the most of it. Analyzations of surrealitites aside, this movie has a very clear message. As far as this director is concerned, Hollywood is a bad place. Be warned.

Mulholland Drive Available from Amazon Price: $11.99 Updated on 11-16-2008.

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