Inland Empire
This film can be looked at as David Lynch’s ultimate epic unfiltered presentation of his genius with no compromises, or the point where he finally crosses the line into muddled cinematic self indulgence. Really, it’s a little of both. For the first 45 minutes, the plot is almost linear, showcasing Laura Dern as an actress filming her role in a movie directed by Jeremy Irons. After the introduction of a conflict between her co-star and her husband, Lynch goes off the deep end, and the “plot” goes straight out the window, as Dern wanders thru various, almost unrelated tableaus that we’re not quite sure are part of the movie-within-a-movie, her dreams and hallucinations, or the inner conflict of the character she’s playing. The whole thing might have been easier to swallow if perhaps a more appealing actress was in the lead, like Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive. The viewer winds up not caring too much for Dern’s fate, and just has to take everything as Lynch serves it up during the whirlwind last 2/3rds of the film. The rest of the cast is peppered with cameos and good actors: Irons is second-billed but is not seen much (though if his role is supposed to be the Lynch-surrogate, things make a little more sense), Harry Dean Stanton seems to be going somewhere as the assistant but never quite arrives, Justin Theroux is smug as usual as the co-star, Julia Ormond has her moments as the other female actress, and there are bits by Diane Ladd, William Macy, Nastassja Kinski, Laura Herring, Grace Zabriskie, and a few others. At times Lynch appears to be overlapping Dern’s journey with a completely different story (the Polish soap opera, the girl in the hotel, the Jackrabbit family), but it never quite adds up in the end to what it’s supposed to be, and the fact that Dern has a Southern accent that comes and goes doesn’t help matters much. In addition the film just lacks the overall COOLNESS that even Lynch’s more surreal efforts seem to have in spades. The bevy of hookers that appear from time to time to keep Dern company bring some much-needed sex appeal, but in the end this is the LAST film anyone should be shown to introduce them to Lynch’s work…
5/10