Blog From The Bench

I made it to Harvard Square on the afternoon of Dec. 8 to see the first showing of David Lynch's new movie, Inland Empire. Three hours of Lynch surrealism? It was an exhausting, frightening, amazing experience.

So the movie begins with a troubled young prostitute who, after, uh, "servicing" her, um, "customer," turns to the television to escape her nightmarish life. On TV, she watches an odd sitcom about some rabbits, which then transforms into the story of Nikki, a successful actress about to start work on an important new film. As things progress, Nikki eventually starts to become the character she's playing. From there, reality just keeps on unraveling, as Nikki finds herself in one unsettling predicament after another.

What we've got here is a film with several layers of story going on at once. The trick to it is to know which parts of which story belong to which layer and...

OK, I'm going to stop right there and not even bother trying to analyze the plot. As with most of Lynch's films, this one's going to take repeated viewings before eventually getting a sense of just what is happening. The first time you see a Lynch film, you don't focus on the story, you focus on the mood and the atmosphere. This one's got all sorts of dark, creepy imagery, as well as that dreamlike feel that Lynch is so good at creating. It's not as "out there" as Eraserhead, but it's more oddball than Mulholland Drive. I'd say Inland Empire's closest kin would be Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me, in that even though there's all sorts of bizarre unexplainable stuff happening on screen, Lynch never loses sight of where the characters are emotionally. You might not know what's going on, but you'll still be able to relate to the characters.

Speaking of which, Laura Dern was great here, playing several different characters (or, perhaps, one character with a very fractured psyche). I know a lot of folks are pushing for her to get an Oscar for this role, but I felt that her performance was genuine, and not just weepy Oscar bait. Justin Theroux, Jeremy Irons, Grace Zabriski, and perpetual weirdo Harry Dean Stanton were all excellent as well.

I left the theater feeling excited, in a way. Seeing this movie got my creative juices flowing, and, as weird as it all was, it reminded my why I love movies in general. So, yeah, I recommend that everyone make the effort to go see this one at the theater. Even if "art" movies aren't your thing and you'd rather see something like ninjas fighting dinosaurs, I say go see Inland Empire anyway, and see where the journey takes you.