Review of Wild at Heart (1990) by Kristian S — 15 Nov 2008

Again Lynch showing that he's able to instill a semblance of a human connection when using other people's source material as the basis for his story. No mistake, it's still resoundingly Lynchian in its creepiness and indulgence in perversity for its own sake, but here we get to see, even if buried and broken and bruised, a sincere and touching love story and a side of Lynch that's every bit as real as his whacked-out side. It's a side one often hears people who know and have worked with him talk about and like to point out because it's in such stark contrast to the kind of guy you'd expect from his films.

Motifs like the Wizard of Oz elements are chosen and woven in ways that seem unusually and inexplicably logical, while at the same time being unexpected, fresh, poignant. More than any other of his films I felt his imagery and metaphors were more accessible and intentionally so. One of my great complaints with Lynch is that he often seems intentionally obtuse, remote, or obscure. While I understand and sympathize with that philosophy to an extent, it is, as a matter of taste, not mine.

While still far from being mass-consumable and still often feeling like a gleeful and selfish assault on the psyche that alienates me, it still wields that revolutionary, exacting, incendiary Lynchian artistic vision and offers up a genuine, even in its exaggeration, connectable and inspiring love story. One where we feel like these lovers, Sailor and Lula, are at once revolting and endearing, unbelievable and relatable.

It may still be too harsh on my sensibilities to revisit with much joy or frequency, but there are definitely things worth coming back for here and certainly worth seeing once if you can weather Lynch's style.