Inland Empire

I finally signed up for Netflix a little over a week ago, and this was my first choice. I was supposed to receive my first movie last Saturday, and when it didn't come, I just wrote it off to the vagaries of mailing time. However, on Sunday morning, a blonde woman I'd never seen before turned up on my doorstep, explaining that she was one of my neighbors and was previously the only person in our neighborhood to her knowledge who had Netflix. She'd received our two movies, but hadn't realized it until she opened them and noticed they weren't the sort of movies she'd choose. She looked at the address and figured out where they were supposed to go, so she brought them to our house. Since she was bringing me a David Lynch film, it would've been more appropriate if she'd finished the conversation by saying something surreal, like "The owls are not what they seem", or that she was already inside my house and offer me her cell phone so I could call her, but she didn't do anything like that. I just thanked her and she went on her way without so much as a cryptic comment.

As for the movie itself, the first half was as good as anything I've ever seen by David Lynch. It was off-kilter while still being something you could follow. Then the wheels fell off, and it was just strange without being particularly interesting other than some truly unsettling images. Critics have said this is his strangest film, and I'd have to agree with that. David Lynch famously said that this movie was "about a woman in trouble", and I don't think he could really say anything more about it because he himself didn't know anything more. I truly don't understand the parts with the sitcom with the people with rabbit heads, apart from the obvious satire of having the audience laugh at inappropriate times just because they're cued to do so.

It appeared to me as though it was chiefly about an actress who was losing the ability to distinguish between fact and fantasy, but even that idea seemed to break down after a while. I don't think David Lynch really has stories to tell; I think he's a painter who falls in love with unsettling moving images.

Call this one a 7 out of 10 if you're a David Lynch fan in the first place, and a 3 out of 10 if you're looking for an actual cohesive story of some kind. I found it worth my time to watch, but it's definitely not for everybody. I'd kick it up to 8 out of 10 if it'd been even a little more cohesive, since the beginning was so strong. If you're going to try David Lynch for the first time, I'd suggest the Twin Peaks series, which is more accessible (probably because other creative minds were involved as well) or "Blue Velvet" (but be prepared for strong sexual and violent content).

It also annoyed me that there were no chapter breaks, leaving the viewer stuck with nearly a three hour movie and no way to watch it in parts. I watched it in two sittings by watching the first half one day, then leaving the first half on the TV with the sound muted while I did other things and catching the second half when it almost caught up to where I'd left off. Mr. Lynch himself believes strongly that movies are meant to be watched beginning to end (which I'm sure is why the DVD has no chapter breaks), and would probably say that the reason I didn't like the second half as much as the first is that I didn't watch it all in one sitting, and that I could have done so, since I left the first half run while doing other things another day. That much is true, but the fact is that it's physically difficult for me to sit still to watch a three hour movie uninterrupted. I'd also like to have been able to revisit parts of the second half to better understand how they fit in with the beginning, and to see how David Lynch achieved some of the more disturbing effects, which was primarily with lighting and unconventional use of sound. I'm sure there are film students who'd love to do the same. However, it's just not worth the trouble it'd take to run the whole film again just to watch a few bits.

I plan to take a lot more chances with my choice of films now, since I'm paying a flat rate and if one of those choices flat out stinks, I can just turn it off and send it back without another thought. This is going to be good.