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| Naomi
Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, Dan
Hedaya, Mark Pellegrino |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Betty Elms (Naomi Watts):
Oh come on, we'll pretend we're somebody else. It'll be just like
in the movies!
A young hopeful actress moves to Hollywood
and encounters a mysterious woman suffering from amnesia after a
car accident.
 Director
David Lynch has quite a reputation as a 'difficult' director, a
'Maestro of Weird' who chooses to indulge in the unexplainable,
willfully defeating audience expectations of being presented with
an accessible, understandable plot. But he has also displayed the
unique ability to enthrall a nation with the wildly successful first
series of his groundbreaking Twin Peaks TV series, and
has made successful straightforward films like The Elephant
Man and The Straight Story. Mulholland Dr.
is that rarest of things: a cornerstone film that includes the director's
unique styles, quirks and obsessions while remaining uniquely entertaining
and relatively accessible.
His latest offering plays like a summation of the director's best
work, with a labyrinthine plot that successfully fuses his ability
to unsettle with Lynch's unique sense of humor. Although there are
several similarities with Lynch's recent Lost Highway,
Mulholland Dr. has a much richer, brighter canvas that
is so entertaining on a superficial, scene-by-scene level, that
even those viewers who soon abandon all hope of ever making sense
of the narrative will rarely be bored in the film's first two hours.
The narrative U-turn that occurs 25 minutes before the end will
bewilder and enthrall in equal measure, and has by now fuelled untold
numbers of heated post-film debates (I won't spoil any of the plot
points here, read this excellent article
on Salon.com for pretty good answers to most questions).
The film's much-discussed narrative twist all but demands a second
viewing, and repeated viewings will prove how surprisingly cohesive
and multi-layered a movie this is. Beyond the main narrative lines
and their many branches, the film's Hollywood setting provides Lynch
with such a richly loaded feeding ground that the film's subtextual
levels of meaning build further on the central plot's themes. The
many different levels of meaning join together to form a fasinating,
infinitely rewatchable movie as rewarding as it is challenging,
as hilarious as it is frightening and as brilliant as anything Lynch
has ever made. A genuine, innovative masterpiece that marks a high
point in Lynch's already impressive career. |
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Currently only available as a Region
1 DVD release. It's available in two different packaging designs,
each with one of the two lead actresses' portraits. The contents
of the disc are fully identical.
The anamorphic widescreen image
is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 1.78:1. The bulk of the
film's footage was shot for TV as the pilot for an unrealized TV
series, but fortunately, Lynch chose to use the HDTV standard widescreen
aspect ratio, resulting in a nicely framed and at least somewhat
cinematic widescreen presentation. It lacks the visual density and
texture of Lynch's other feature films, but carries his signature
subjective roaming camera, always poking around and corners down
dark hallways, as well as several impressively stylized uses of
bright color and lighting effects. The transfer, which was supervised
and approved by Lynch himself, is virtually flawless, with terrifically
deep black levels, marvelous shadow detail and consistently natural
skintones. The slight haziness is a part of the original cinematography
and an intentional effect.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound mix is as immersive and as carefully designed
as one would expect from a David Lynch film. He does the sound design
for all his movies himself, and makes excellent, eerie use of the
full surround sound platform. Badalamenti's creepy synth score is
a more minimalist than effort than his recent orchestral work, but
it adds greatly to the atmosphere. Directionality and immersive
effects once again figure largely in this outstanding sound mix.
The DTS audio track has bass that runs even deeper, and also boasts
better control of the high-end dynamics.
The theatrical trailer
and a few pages of cast and crew biographies are
the sole extras on this disc. Inside the box you'll find a slip
of paper with David Lynch's 10 Clues to solving
the puzzle. The clues are - unsurprisingly - playfully oblique and
aren't much use at all for the initial experience, but actually
prove helpful for figuring out some of the narrative details during
a second or third viewing.Static menu screens with alternating
still images of the two main characters provide access to the feature
and the few extras on board. As is usually the case with Region
1 releases of David Lynch films, there are no chapter stops in the
feature, and therefore also no scene selection menu screen.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2002
Click
here for IMDB info on Mulholland
Dr. .
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