Review of Wild at Heart (1990) by Richard K — 27 Jan 2009

A little more lighthearted--and bizarre--than "Blue Velvet," David Lynch's earlier movie on a very similar theme, "Wild at Heart" is by turns funny, odd, and painfully hard to take.

Sailor (Cage) and Lula (Dern, who played a comparable if more restrained role in "Blue Velvet") flee Lula's controlling, mob-connected mother and end up in a frightening underworld of assassins, would-be rapists, and other vermin.

Many Lynch tropes make their appearance--innocents plunged into hell, oddball bit characters, surreal violence, and sexual exploitation of women. Certain Lynch favorites, including Dern, Isabella Rosellini, and Sherilyn Fenn, reappear as well.

Willem Dafoe plays to type as a soulless killer and thief, and Cage gets to ham it up with a couple Elvis songs and a generally affected performance that, surprisingly, works fairly well, Perhaps Cage is better suited to embracing his inner Presley than in trying to play it straight as in the "National Treasure" movies.

"Wild at Heart" is truly a wild ride, and not for the squeamish: Dafoe's scene alone with Dern, while confined to the verbal, is nearly as awful as Dennis Hopper's with Rosellini in "Blue Velvet.

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