Review of Inland Empire (2006) by Andy W — 17 Apr 2010

Its an odd world when a directors reputation deters you from publicly saying what you really think of a film. This is especially true when a director renowned for his ambiguity creates a film so 'artistic,' it makes the emotionally charged psychosis of Mullholland Drive seem positively comprehensible. But never the less we cannot lie... in the end, I should be honest with myself and speak my mind, and let the rest of the world dissect and rubbish my opinion, if need be...

When you come to a film this abstract, I'm guessing the only way you can judge it is through the emotional response you get from the whole experience. With a film that doesn't really have anything approaching conventional characterisation, such a response is heavily reliant upon the potency of the moment, of the narrativeless image based unfolding of the piece.

Supposedly Lynch was making it up as he went along, which is kind of acceptable I guess, considering the directors intent of depicting the inner depths of an unfolding female psyche. But even with a talent as renowned as Lynch, there is still enough haziness in his approach and in the resulting film to make you suspect that maybe, just maybe, you are being conned, or at least that he is not really doing his job to the best of his ability, and is hiding it by being willfully arty/ambiguous.

The film does have its moments of brilliance (well ok scratch that, one moment of brilliance, for me) and to the directors credit, there is a consistently nightmarish ambiance enveloping the piece, but alot of the time the vague murkiness doesn't have any real emotional resonance. You have no connection to all these oddball progressions on even a gut level of emotional empathy, so why should you care really...

The use of digital cameras has a mixed effect, working very well in some scenes (particularly the 'urban' sidewalk scene towards the end) and looking slightly dodgy in others.

Theres alot of stuff in here that merits more then 2 stars (special mention goes to Laura Dern and what I like to think is the films brave attempt to showcase the corruption of femininity in a patriarchal world) but I'm gonna put my hand up and be honest, I felt nothing alot of the time. And 3 hours is a VERY long time to feel nothing.