We are all familiar with the concept that movies are not shot in chronological order, but what about films that are not shown in chronological order, well that is art. In Mulholland Drive director David Lynch (Twin Peaks, The Elephant Man) has mastered this concept brilliantly. As in the film Memento, written and directed by Christopher Nolen, we are shown situations and actions circulating around one suffering from a memory loss. But is what we see what it should be, and if you are paying attention you won't be disappointed. These two films are so distorted, but pieced together so beautifully that the writer and director has to be one in the same to bring this in cohesive puzzle together. This film opens with an incident involving a limo on Mulholland Drive, a beautiful female (Laura Harring of Little Nicky) walks away from the accident dazed. Later we are introduced to a perky young emerging starlet (Naomi Watts, Dangerous Beauty) who calls herself Betty, and she befriends this amnesiac woman whom we shall now call Rita. The story takes us on a journey to discover who she is. Basically this is the plot in a nutshell. Sounds fairly simple. Well metaphor, symbolism and deconstruction take this simple plot into an odyssey that would resemble Requiem for a Dream. Now isn't that apropos, we have a lost woman in the city of dreams, Los Angeles. What I really find interesting is the title of this movie, Mulholland Drive and what the street represents in this film. I would suspect that the title is purely coincidental, but I doubt Lynch would not know the real history of Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. The street built on dreams that became a nightmare.

I would like to say this is a love story, and in its own twisted sort of way it is. But the inherent story is what the image of Hollywood does to people and what happens to all those dreams. Now if this deep connection is a little past what you are looking for, then there is something for the superficial and plebian too. If what you really want to see is the most erotica lesbian love making I have yet to see on the silver screen well then there you have it or there is a very interesting scene where Watts fervently masturbates on her sofa. So you can go for the brilliant writing and direction of Lynch or some erotica that will keep you talking. Also appearing in Mulholland Drive is Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, Maya Bond and Scott Wulff. With that said I give Mulholland Drive an eight on the About-Movies.com scale.

Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:49:10 AM

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