Mulholland Dr. (2001)

Directed by: David Lynch
Starring: Naomi Watts

****1/2

It took careful attention, a google search for an explanation and then a second viewing for me to understand, appreciate and dare I say, love David Lynch's Mulholland Dr. All I can do is hang my head in embarrassment for my endless claims that the film is pretentious, confusing just to be confusing and could not possibly be as good as so many claim that it is. It had been several years since I first saw Mulholland Dr, after watching for a second time, it was about an hour before watching it a third.

First, what keeps Mulholland Dr. from being perfect, then what makes it great. Despite the fact that I understand the movie now and appreciate what Lynch did, anytime I need to research an explanation of a movie, it is going to hurt that movie's overall rating in my book. That having been said, had this film had a little bit more exposition, had it given its audience a little bit less credit, had it explained everything a little more than not at all, without of course giving up everything that makes it what it is, this could perhaps be one of the best movies ever made. Could that have been done I wonder? What this film is, is as much a mystery as the one the characters are trying to solve. The non-chronological timeline of events leaves you scratching your head but it also divulges information appropriately when necessary. Who these characters are is just as important as who they are not. What we see, is just as important as what we don't see. Without these very intentional techniques used by Lynch, the mood, the pacing and the quality of this movie would be effected. Call it a dream, call it a puzzle with missing pieces, call it pretenious if you really want to, but Lynch never made this movie for people who need to know exactly what's going on, just as Kubrick didn't make The Shining for that audience. Something doesn't have to make sense to be great I guess.

The first hour and forty or so minutes of this movie is film noir at its best. Even the subtle over-acting from Naomi Watts and Laura Herring were reminiscent of the dames from the 40s, 50s and 60s. The lighting was shadowy with deep contrasts. The music, which was used as perfectly as I've seen in a long time, said everything it was supposed to say. This hour and forty minutes is filmmaking perfected. Then, the other shoes falls. Suddenly everything seems backwards. For the next forty-five minutes of the film its difficult to appreciate the filmmaking because the story which I was following so closely and enjoying so thoroughly is a mess. Everytime I thought I might have an idea of what is going on, something else happens to prove my theory wrong. Having read an explanation, or a theory at the very least, I do believe that what I watched does makes sense, but its tricky and its distracting.

So to enjoy Mulholland Dr. all one needs to do is watch the first half of it. To really appreciate the movie for what it is, it might require some help and certainly needs repeated viewings. So as a whole, I'm on board. Mulholland Dr. is a great movie. Piece by piece, however, how does Mulholland Dr. work? Like any movie that needs to be watched a few times to really recognize how each aspect plays in, Lynch does well to tie things together but I wasn't sure if it was all necessary. And if it was necessary, I wasn't always sure if it worked with the movie as a whole. In other words, yes, there seemed to be a reason for everything but that didn't always mean that something needed to be in the movie. Even upon rewatching the film with a better idea of what was going on, I still questioned how certain scenes were important to the overall story.

It was once a mystery to me how a film so confusing could be considered so great. Now I'm simply fascinated by the mystery that is this film and the one that's within it. It was impossible to turn off from start to finish. Its a challenging movie, not in content but by the way it doesn't allow its audience to take a break. If you miss anything, you could miss out on one of the many aspects of this movie that really make it great.