Review of Lost Highway (1997) by Gokcen A — 09 Mar 2010

Lost Highway marks the official beginning of David Lynch's baffing film period (not counting the 1992 Twin Peaks film). After establishing himself in the 80's as an unconventional director with a flair for neo-noir and unusual situations but still following a linear storyline, Lost Highway starts the trend of films which contain non-linear plots, identity switches and extremely bizarre characters whose true purposes are never explained to the audience.

In Lost Highway, Bill Pullman plays a saxophonist named Fred who begins to suspect that his wife, played by Patricia Arquette, is being unfaithful. At a party that the couple attends, Fred has an encounter with a mystery man, played by a pre-prison Robert Blake, who supposedly constantly breaks into the couples' house, films them as they sleep, and then sends them a VHS tape of it the next day. It is soon revealed that after this encounter and calling the police, Fred murdered his wife, but after he goes to prison, he "morphs" into another person, Peter, played by Balthazar Getty. He is released from prison and a whole new story begins. He returns to work at an auto shop, continues seeing his on-off girlfriend, and keeps being visited by a local mob boss who likes him. He eventually stops by with a beautiful blonde woman, played by Arquette again as a different character. He begins a secret relationship with her and things get weirder from here, as other characters from Fred's life begin to reappear in Peter's as he begins his sexual relationship with the new Arquette character, while the two make an effort to hide their affair from the mob boss.

A captivating and bizarre story that is as hypnotic as it is confusing, part of the fun of watching Lost Highway is seeing the disturbing world that Lynch has created, peppered with eroticism, extreme violence and other unusual, recurring imagery. The non-linear storyline that Lynch would perfect four years later in the thematically-similar Mulholland Drive will leave you thinking about the film for days, if not months. Regular Lynch composer Angelo Badalamenti returns, and like usual, his score is brilliant. The 90's alternative rock that is featured throughout the film (selected by Trent Reznor) works well, especially the fantastic David Bowie track "I'm Deranged". The only real downside is that most of the performances here are generally flat, with Pullman seeming relatively bored throughout the whole fim, with the sole exception being the ending. Only Arquette's femme-fatale character and Robert Blake's brilliantly terrifying mystery character leave much of an impression. The latter remains as one of my favourite Lynch characters. Seriously, I wouldn't want to be stuck on an elevator alone with Blake while in the characters' makeup.

It's funny; Lost Highway was mostly critically panned upon release, while 2001's Mulholland Drive used a very similar structure, yet was a success commercially and critically, winning the Best Director Award at Cannes and receiving numerous academy award nominations, including Best Director. It even got Lynch his first positive review from Roger Ebert, who has loathed all of his films prior! Maybe it just took audiences four years to truly realize how unique the style of Lynch's post-Wild at Heart films really were. Overall, a good movie that most casual moviegoers will loathe, but that's just the way it is.