Review of Wild at Heart (1990) by Elvira B — 04 Aug 2008

Sailor and Lula are two freewheelin lovers in a road trip into the underbelly of the American south, as they escape from Lula's mother's attempts to end their love and have Sailor killed by hiring a gang of morally and physically twisted assassins.

The highlights here are the performances and the imagery created by Lynch (his own version of a real-life American gothic in which people have Wizard of Oz hallucinations). Nicolas Cage as Sailor is (surprisingly) excellent (Cage is a box of surprises, sometimes he's awful and sometimes he's pretty good). His character is a rock and roll road hero in a typical quest for redemption and freedom, and Cage plays him pefectly: a young man who takes himself a little too seriously, with a deep womanizing voice and a snakeskin jacket. Laure Dern plays Sailor's almost unbearably enthusiastic but beautiful girlfriend. Her real-life mother, Diane Ladd, plays Marietta, her psycho mother in an eerie and fascinating performance. The supporting cast is similarly funny and disturbing: Willem Dafoe as Bobby Peru, Isabella Rossellini as Perdita and Crispin Glover as Lula's cousin (his character makes absolutely no sense, but in this film nothing really has to).

There's really no point to trying to figure out what "the message" of Wild At Heart is. I think that it's simply Lynch's love letter to the dark side of America: his vision is that of a place so bizarre, so interesting, and yet so dark that it brings out the most obscure secrets of both lovers and even manages to put their relationship at risk... a declaration of love to music, to surrealism, and to love itself. The film is beautifully shot, the colors are often vibrant, the soundtrack is fantastic, and, what's even better, the plot is actually understandable if only on the surface, which is a nice variation within the director's body of work. There are priceless, hilarious, revolting, ridiculous, and romantic scenes. It may be self-indulgent, but what auteur film really isn't? And while it's not my favorite Lynch, it's up there. I enjoyed every second of it.