Review of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) by Ryan O — 26 Jul 2011

Upon my completion of watching "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," I had a difficult time justifying the film's need to exist. To me what made "Twin Peaks" such a powerful show is seeing the darkness of these small town folks unravel and collide all because of the murder of one Laura Palmer.

Hearing about her behavior through backstories, conversations, and journal entries made it that much more eerie every time we saw her picture as prom queen. FWWM reiterates what we already know, making for a sluggish two hours and fifteen minutes.

If it would have brought up something interesting or fascinating I would understand why the film was made, but it doesn't, so I don't. No disrespect to the performances in any way. Sheryl Lee gets to bring Laura Palmer to life and she does wonders, but it just takes away the power from a great series.

I would have been all for seeing the story progress after the cliffhanger in season two. We would have got to see more of Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and see where his story went from (I won't spoil it for newbies, but instead, he makes a mere cameo in FWWM, as a lot of the townfolks of Twin Peaks are noticeably absent.

I know David Lynch felt there was more of the "Twin Peaks" universe to explore, and I know that he knew that the Laura Palmer storyline was indeed the most popular, which is why he probably went back so he could get the people who turned against the more Lynch-like season two (which was still a great season in my eyes), but it didn't work.

I'm not one of those people who whined that the film was "too dark" in comparison to the series. Come on, I'm "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive" fan numero uno, I saw it coming from Lynch.

What I didn't see coming was the feeling of disappointment. FWWM - like all of Lynch's films - have the ability to get inside my head and stay there, but in this case, not in a good way.