MULHOLLAND DR. – Naomi Watts – d: David Lynch
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Direction and screenplay: David Lynch
Cast: Naomi Watts, Justin Theroux, Laura Elena Harring, Dan Hedaya, Ann Miller, Robert Forster, Lee Grant, Chad Everett, Billy Ray Cyrus
Mulholland Dr., David Lynch’s nightmarish take on Hollywood and on the pursuit of the "American Dream," is impossible to pigeonhole as belonging to a particular genre. The film is part black comedy, part mystery thriller, part psychological drama, part horror movie — it boasts one of the most horrific endings ever filmed. The final result is a long, bizarre — and brilliant — journey through an ambitious actress’ psyche; the most haunting such journey since the one undertaken in Sunset Blvd. more than half a century earlier.
Curiously, Mulholland Dr. was to have become a television series, but it got cancelled because ABC was displeased with the pilot. Enter Studio Canal with the necessary funds to allow Lynch to transform his failed pilot into a feature film. Taking a radically different path from Lynch’s Twin Peaks, a successful TV series turned into a poorly received feature in 1992, Mulholland Dr. went from failed TV series to major critical hit upon its 2001 big-screen release.
Essentially the story of two women, Betty (Naomi Watts), a young Canadian who dreams of becoming a great actress and a big Hollywood star, and Rita (Laura Elena Harring), a woman who lost her memory after a deadly car accident on you-know-where, Mulholland Dr. frequently branches off into the warped universe of several disparate characters of the Los Angeles underbelly. Those include an incompetent hired killer (Mark Pellegrino), an arrogant film director (Justin Theroux) at odds with the Mafia, an entertainer who collapses after singing "Crying" in Spanish, and a creepy (and cryptic) cowboy.
Ultimately, all those people — and more — turn out to be hallucinations in the fast-deteriorating mind of Diane Selwyn (also Watts), a disillusioned actress wannabe who, after having been jilted by her lover (also Harring), is about to get thrown into the bottomless abyss of broken dreams.
For this cautionary Hollywood tale, director-writer Lynch takes a step back from the corny, linear style of The Straight Story, reverting instead to his old surreal approach in Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. Actually, "surreal" is not quite the right word in this case. The dream sequences in Mulholland Dr. should be labeled "hyper-real" for they are (usually) grounded on reality — but an overblown reality, presented in caps, in bold, and underlined. Everything, from Betty’s goody-goody persona to the explosion-like sounds of car crashes, gunshots, and punches, is an exaggeration of reality itself.
This not-quite-real-nor-totally-unreal atmosphere is immeasurably enhanced by Lynch’s frequent collaborator, Angelo Badalamenti, who composed the picture’s haunting score, and by Peter Deming’s luscious though slightly off-kilter cinematography. But despite all the talent involved, Mulholland Dr. would have been a pale version of its brilliant self without the presence of British-born, Australian actress Naomi Watts.
Watts, in her first important role in a major motion picture, is a revelation. She manages to make her psychotically la-la-landish Betty a likable, three-dimensional character — and that is no small feat. The fact that Diane looks, sounds, and acts so different from Betty earns Watts even more points, though the most astounding aspect of her performance is that Betty’s innocence and hopefulness is clearly discernible underneath Diane’s bitterness and disillusionment. Therefore, instead of coming across as a vindictive villainess, Diane is turned into a tragic victim of the Wicked Witch of Broken Dreams. She is Betty through the looking glass — or vice-versa. Whichever the case may be, Watts’ Diane stands next to Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond as two of the greatest and most tragic representations of deluded actors on film.
Other directors who have aimed for Lynch’s style of hyper-realism, from Spike Jonze to Paul Thomas Anderson, might want to watch (and rewatch) Mulholland Dr. for inspiration. Admittedly, the acting of some of the supporting players is hardly top notch (though it is a pleasure to watch veteran Ann Miller in what turned out to be her last feature-film role) and David Lynch does let his old self-indulgence get in the way every now and then. But even if certain scenes could have been shorter while others could have been excised, they do not detract from the whole. That is because the director-writer never loses sight of the psychological undercurrents of his characters or of the purpose of his tale.
"I’m in this dream place," Betty exclaims shortly after her arrival in Los Angeles. Lynch then spends the next two and a half hours showing us that L.A., Hollywood, the luxurious Mulholland Drive, and all they represent are, in fact, the stuff that nightmares are made of.
Academy Award Nomination
Best Direction: David Lynch
Subscribe / Syndicate
Leave a Comment
Tags: Angelo Badalamenti, David Lynch, Film Reviews, Films on Filmmaking, Five-Star Gay Movies, Five-Star Movies, Five-Star Oscar Nominees, Justin Theroux, Laura Elena Harring, Lesbian Interest, Mulholland Dr., Naomi Watts, Oscar 2001, Oscar Movies
Comments
Leave a Reply
NOTE:
All comments are moderated and may take some time before they are posted. Different views and opinions are welcome, but courtesy is imperative. Rude/crass/bigoted comments and name-calling of any sort will be immediately deleted.
Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has no contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog and no information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
