Title: Mulholland Drive
Release Date: October 12th, 2001
Director: David Lynch
Writer: David Lynch
Starring: Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Ann Miller, and Robert Foster
*SPOILER WARNING*
Sorry to all the people who have been waiting on my posts. Just got done relocating so no more hiatuses! This is my first installment of this new thing I’m doing called “First Impressions with JWIMYS” when I review classic series, movies, and anything else of the sort and giving my first impressions on it.
Mulholland Drive….. I honestly don’t even know what I really watched…So I kind of cheated and watched it again after my first watch through. I have had this movie on my watch list for almost 3 years and I want to go back in the past and slap myself for making a stupid mistake. This is a very very confusing movie so this is just my interpretation from my viewing.
The great Lynch put the viewers on amazing 2 and a half hour that puts the viewer through a rollercoaster. It all starts out with a black haired woman (Harring) escaping a murder attempt on Mulholland Drive and starts to hide in a house where someone is leaving for vacation. As Betty (Watts) arrives to Hollywood from Canada to aspire to be an actress.She goes to the apartment which we find out to be her Aunt Ruth’s and finds Harring in the house with amnesia. They decide to call her Rita from this point on until they figure out her name. So Betty and Rita spend the next bulk of the movie trying to figure out who Rita is and why she was trying to get killed. You also see another character Adam Kesher (Theroux) who is trying to push his film but is getting bullied by members of the mafia to give the role to a star Camilla Rhodes.
Throughout the film we see that Betty is actually an amazing actress almost flawless and there are men looking for Rita’s character all over the city. Rita also remembers a small detail about her past life that helps them. While they’re at Winkie’s diner the waitress has a name Diane and that triggers the only part of her memory that she remembers, “Diane Selwyn”. As Betty and Rita get closer and closer they develop feelings for each other and have sex. After that Rita wakes up in her sleep around 2 AM saying Silencio over and over again then begging Betty to go with her to the club. This is were things get weird.
Rita and Betty arrive to Club Silencio. They see people sitting in seats stone faced. The magician is in the middle of the stage repeating “no hay banda” which translates to “there’s no band” and “it is all an illusion” in different languages. Another man walks on stage then introduces a woman who starts singing. As she’s singing she faints which has Betty and Rita realize that she wasn’t singing all. This startles Betty because as this is happening a Blue Box appears in Rita’s purse. Startled both of them hurry back to the Apartment to try to put the key and box together. Rita finds the key but she can’t find Betty anywhere in sight she unlocks the box then boom.
As the film goes on you see moments of the film that you’re honestly confused as to why they have even included some of these parts. Like Kesher meeting the Cowboy who tells him to cast Camilla, seeing that Kesher’s wife is cheating on him, the man at Winkie’s speaking and seeing the creature behind diner, The hit man, the blue key and all of these are trivial to the story, the relevance of Club Silencio and their all hints or showing that everything is a dream.
You get a realization that majority of this is a dream when we “go” inside of the blue box and Betty is getting nudged woke and she’s getting addressed as Diane. She is going through severe depression based on what the real world is and her “dream” as Betty is her trying to cope with it. We find out that Camilla Rhodes isn’t the girl we seen earlier in the film. It’s actually Rita. Well the person who was “Rita” in her dream. She’s also a much better actress than her who’s the lead in the film that Keshler is leading. I’m assuming Diane used that as a way to cover up who was really getting the role over her. She also uses her dream to imagine what her life would be like perfectly. Her making Camilla rely on her to get through life, Her being an amazing actress are all dreams, and her being a happy individual are stuff she dreams for. Since it’s the polar opposite of the reality. She’s a washed up actress that can’t get big roles, Camilla doesn’t want her anymore she’s in love with the director, and she’s a failing actress with strong depression. To the point where she goes days without leaving her house just crying wishing her life was the “Hollywood Dream”. She even gets to the point that she can’t even Camilla being alive so she orders a hit man to get her killed. Hence why at the beginning the man said he saw a scary figure behind the diner. Which I think eluded to her being at the diner and knowing she was going to do something wrong against her ex-lover. It’s the inner demons that are eating her alive that she’s at the point where she knows she’s going to do something wrong but she has to come to terms with it. The dreams are her escape because her reality is just something that she can’t cope with.
The acting that Watts portray in this film is almost unbelievable to see. One of my favorite performances I’ve seen in awhile. Her embodiment of Betty and Diane is just amazing to see. It’s honestly hard to explain but her character as Diane is just perfect. Diane being a person who just wants everything in her life to go right. Just want all the bad thoughts, terrible situations to stop, and wants to be loved. Just a splendid performance.
Mulholland Drive man.. This movie is just perfect. There’s nothing more or else I can say but that the great Lynch outdid himself again. Which seems like a movie with a jumpy plot has so many underlining themes that make you ponder and question with each review. I highly recommend everyone who got to the bottom of this lengthy review to please check it out!
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