01/20/10 - Mulholland Dr.

Mulholland Dr. (2001, 147 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/

So today was David Lynch's birthday and while I didn't immensely love Blue Velvet from the other night, I did want to check out another Lynch film. So I picked Mulholland Dr. I'd heard really mixed things about it and that it was overall one of the biggest mind trip movies of all time. Usually those movies are hit or miss so I was curious how this one would stack up.

Mulholland Dr. stars Naomi Watts and Laura Herring in a movie that mixes dreams and reality. So, Watts plays two characters - Betty Elms and Diane Selwyn - and the same is true for Herring - Rita and Camilla Rhodes. The main other character in the story is that of the director Adam Kesher played by Justin Theroux.

The acting here is good. Nobody really goes beyond what I expected from them. The movie is more about the plot and story than the acting so it naturally takes a back seat for this film. It's still important that no one be really really bad or anything and since that doesn't happen, the movie goes along fine.

Mulholland Dr.'s plot is perhaps the most convoluted and bizarre I've ever seen. Stuff like Memento or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind seem tame in comparison. This also makes these comments some of the most difficult to write. I honestly have no idea where to start writing notes down. The movie blends reality with dreams and with that it creates two "universes" or something but which also interact with each other. It's acceptable for about half of the movie or more until these interactions start occurring and then everything just gets weird. Note, that when I say "weird" I don't mean "bad" I just mean that probably at the two-thirds point of the movie I was confused beyond explanation. Usually, this would make me hate a movie. I hated Donnie Darko because it made no sense. But there, Donnie Darko tried to make sense by making up some explanation for how time travel works. Here, Lynch doesn't do much explaining and leaves pretty much the entire movie up for whatever interpretation you want to give it. This really works well for the film. I also read that Lynch refuses to actually comment on the matter leaving it to each individual viewer to decide what happened. Because of this, the movie doesn't come off as pretentious or anything like that. While that word is a loaded one and one I usually hate using for these "artsy" movies, I can say that it doesn't apply here. If you don't understand what happened at all and don't want to think more about it, then that's up to you. If you want to try and figure out some meaning to what you just saw, then you can do that as well. All in all, a lot of stuff works right for the plot. Little symbolism comes up here and there and you could probably write an essay on just the symbolism in this movie. I mean, it's really obvious that Lynch put a lot of time into making this a deep movie. He didn't just throw stuff together and then say "Now you can interpret this how you want" because everything really works together. The dream versus reality aspect of the film is equally deep. It allows for various interpretations but also allows you to question what you're seeing on the screen as reality. While this might make some movies fall apart, it really doesn't here and that's good.

Mulholland Dr. left a weird impression on me. Most movies like this I see and just keep on going with my life. Mulholland Dr. is different. It actually enters back into my mind these days later and wants me to think back on it some and maybe come up with some new idea or add to some existing one. Not many movies have done that to me before. I think this is just a testament to how well everything synchronizes together. I absolutely cannot stress this enough. The movie might seem like a mishmash of various ideas but it really isn't.

Mulholland Dr. naturally reminds me of Sunset Blvd. Both are from the noir genre and both feature double-dealing concerning movies. While Sunset Blvd. is easily a better film from a story and acting standpoint, Mulholland Dr. does a good job at holding its own as a modern film. There are quite a few parallels with the story and I liked this. I don't know how much it was supposed to be paying homage to the older classic, but I like what ended up happening.

I'd also like to add some notes about the music. I've always said that the difference between a great movie and an amazing movie is the soundtrack. Mulholland Dr. features some really good tunes that blend in really well with the tension that develops on screen. Overall, the music isn't highly technical but it's used to set the scene almost perfectly. I really liked it.

Overall, I gave this film a 7/10. While I pretty much constantly praised it above, I just can't give it much higher than this. Though I wouldn't be surprised to come back in some voting update and knock it up to an 8/10. I don't know yet, though. Mulholland Dr. works so well in so many parts but it definitely does not deserve a 9/10 from me. I guess the main reason is the weak characters at times but there are a few other nuances as well. Still, Mulholland Dr. was better than I expected and left me perplexed but also intrigued.

[Note: Due to a voting update, I have changed the rating of Mulholland Dr. to an 8/10.]