Review of Mulholland Dr. (1999) by Henri J — 19 Feb 2013

This is a near perfect film. In my mind the perfect film is a film that has philosophical meaning and metaphors behind it, but they are not needed to enjoy the film. A perfect film anyone can watch even if they don't understand the hidden meaning behind it.

This film almost achieves this. I will state that the first three quarters of this film are some of the greatest film making I have seen of all time. The story is fantastic, if a bit confusing at times, the acting is spectacular, you really want to see what happens to these characters and you are interested in what they pay off might be.

But then the last quarter of the film happens. Suddenly the last quarter happens and everything I stated earlier gets thrown out the window and every metaphor and artistic expression David Lynch was holding back was thrown into the quarter, making the film so confusing that it was incredible hard deciphering what was happening, who was who, what was reality.

Even once the film had ended I thought I had an idea of what happened in the ending, but I still wasn't one hundred percent sure because of other things in the film. Upon finishing the film and thinking the film over I had to read around three different thesis papers on what actually happened in the film, to which I found out that I was somewhat right.

And I say somewhat because there are some parts in the film that other people just have no clue what it ment, such as the blue box. Upon finding out what the ending really ment I really, really, really liked this film.

The ending is amazing if you understand it. But that is the films biggest problem, this film came out in 2001, when the internet was still blooming as a flower and I can't imagine finding these papers online back then.

If I was not able to figure out the film's ending, I think I would have liked this film a lot less. So it is really a 50/50 review. If you can understand the ending, or are going to take time out of your way to figure out the ending later, you will love this film.

If you can't figure it out you will most likely not enjoy this film because it is impossible to make sense of the ending without trying to figure it out.