Mulholland Drive (2001)
Grade:A
Actors: Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, and Justin Theroux
Director: David Lynch
Rated R for language, violence, nudity, and sex


"Mulholland Drive" is the new film from David Lynch, direcor of such films as "Blue Velvet", "Lost Highway", and "The Straight Story", and it keeps most of his quirks in tact: the strange story, the blonde babe, the plot twists and turns, the violence, and his abstract writing and directing style. Whereas "The Straight Story" was a straightforward film about a man and his lawnmower, "Mulholland Drive" is seemingly about a woman with amnesia, but packs a more powerful punch.

Even with all of those traits, and a sometimes convoluted plot, "Mulholland Drive" is an extraordinary film about the ruthlessness and corrupt nature of Hollywood, the hopes and dreams of a young, peppy girl crushed by reality. It's a fascinating and truthful film.

I said that "Mulholland Drive" is seemingly about one thing, but actually about another. Well, when the film opens, we are introduced to a gorgeous brunette sitting in the back of a limo that's taking a drive on, well, Mulholland Drive. Soon, the driver turns around and, pointing a pistol, instructs her to get out of the car. However, a speeding car comes around the corner and smashes into the limo, giving the woman amnesia.

She wanders down into Hollywood and sleeps in the front yard of a woman named Betty who is staying in her aunt's posh apartment. Thinking that is one of her aunt's friends, Betty invites the mysterious woman into her home to stay. The brunette then sees the name Rita Hayworth on an old movie poster and decides that that should be her name. So Betty and Rita set out to figure out who exactly Rita is and why the heck she has $100,000.00 and a futuristic blue key in her purse.

There are also parallel storylines about a director who is forced by "the powers that be" to cast a blonde, Camilla Rhodes in the starring role of his new film, and a hitman who's hit goes bad as he kills three people and a vacuum cleaner in the process.

The film is a noir (which means "dark" in French), but most of the terror is possessed in the daylight. Take, for instance, when Betty and Rita go to see if a women named Diane is actually Rita (they had seen the name on the nametag of a waitress at the diner, and it caught Rita's attention). They sneak into her apartment, but find nothing except a nasty odor and a rotting corpse on the bed. Shot in daylight, this is some of the most suspenseful filmmaking I've seen in a long time.

The thing I most like about the film is that there is a running theme of seeing is not necessarily believing. One night, Rita repeats "Silencio." over and over in her sleep. She then askes Betty is she will accompany her somewhere at 2:00 a.m. Betty agrees and they end up at Club Silencio, a variety show of sorts for lip-synchers. It's an unsettling sequence, especially when Rebeka Del Rio takes the stage for an emotional lip-synch. This whole scene reinforces that just because you see something happening, doesn't mean that isn't exactly what may be going on. This is the most important thing you should get out of this film, especially when you're trying to figure it all out at the end.

After Club Silencio, there is some recreation of earlier events with different characters in the roles, some personality switches, and some really bizarre filmmaking. It all makes sense in the end.The film however gets kind of convoluted as Mr. Lynch tries to pile all of this on as at once. At first the film is deliberate in it's pacing, kind of slow actually. Then, at the end, the pace picks up and it's hard to really get what's going on.

The real star of this thing is Naomi Watts who jumps from personality to personality without missing a beat. Her Betty is at first Nancy Drew-ish, and just a tad bit obnoxious, but her audition for a leading role in a big theatrical release shows the lurid bombshell that lies within, she plays a ground down, hopes crushed pathetic who hires a hit on her girlfriend. She's amazing in each role, but I've already said too much, so I really must stop.

"Mulholland Drive" pays homage to such films as "Pulp Fiction", "Vertigo", "Persona" and many, many more, but it is completely a film experience unto itself. Catch it while you can, I'm glad I did. "Mulholland Drive" is a rich, complex and thought provoking experience.


-Brian Jones, 2001