Film Review – Inland Empire
Directed By David Lynch
Ultra 8 Pictures
Lucky 47: "A Film In Trouble"
This time out, Academy Award® Nominee David Lynch seems to have resurrected former castaway – Laura Dern and has her dangling from Lynch’s producer noose, while he percolates more of that organic coffee he has been peddling. Dern’s co-pro role finds her attempting (and succeeding) the most complex of roles to date.
Eerie as always, the mighty “D” has gone beyond the realms of predictability this time with the attributes of Eraserhead slipping into a Blue Velvet sleeping bag and camping out on the front lawn of a house somewhere on MullHolland Drive. I guess what I am getting at is – the film is intricate and unique, but to follow the story even when it unravels itself (in a laymen’s fashion) the viewer is still caught in a movie mosh – that involves some typical Lynch concoctions.
Entrails, hookers, bunny suits, carnivorous carnies and a great dance number to make Little Eva proud. Put that in an all-star cast cauldron that features a third of the “Wild at Heart “ bunch including Dern and Harry Dean Stanton, plus the opening scenes that have a third of the cast from Seinfeld. Ok not a third but Mrs. Ross and Mr.Pitt make a humble appearance.
(Mrs. Ross keeps her eyes on the marble rye)
Naomi Watts and the incomparable Jeremy Irons – round out this sumptuous stew of actors that thickens by the minute. Still, a weak score and the unnecessary 172 minutes, left much to be desired in the emotion dept. They say silence is golden – but action speaks louder than words.
Inland Empire opens in Vancouver,
May 3, at the Vancity Theatre
www.inlandempirecinema.com
By E.S. Day
Copyright © 2004-2007 E.S. Day. All Rights Reserved.
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