Review of Inland Empire (2006) by Jay R — 24 Mar 2010
You know I have seen many of Lynch's movies, and their madness and utter incomprehensibility is sometimes inviting and challenging which I like. With Blue Velvet it challenged symbolism and narrative conventions, with Mulholland Dr.
he attacked memory and dreams. Inland Empire is not like any of these other films. While the acting in this movie, especially from Laura Dern is sensational, the utter non-understanding for 3 hours is almost unbearable.
Sometime familiar images pop up on the screen, sometimes characters come back, and sometimes this movie is so twisted is ends up working. But Lynch breaks the one rule that he has done with his other films.
With Lynch's other films, he shows you everything and asks you to decipher the images and align the narrative. With Inland Empire, Lynch is caught up in his own genius, not giving anyone who is watching a chance to understand or even try to understand what is happening.
The images go by and you will find yourself dozing off and enthralled at random instances throughout. Dern is fantastic, but Lynch is too busy with himself to give us a chance. Inland Empire has a great lead and some cool images, but since the viewer is handicapped, this is 3 hours of nothing you can understand.
But what is the key here, is that you don't care if you understand or not.
This review of Inland Empire (2006) was written by Jay R on 24 Mar 2010.
Inland Empire has generally received positive reviews.
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