Movie Notes: Lost Highway
= 1 star
Starring Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Robert Blake
Directed by David Lynch
Synopsis
A jazz saxophonist (Bill Pullman) and wife (Patricia Arquette) receives strange videotapes of someone observing their house. Events soon turn bizarre, there’s a murder, and a transformation into another person.
The Good
- If you’re looking for strange visuals and weird, inexplicable crap, you won’t be disappointed. Some highlights are Robert Blake as the “mystery man,” a Tarantino-esque outburst about tailgating, and innocent Twin Peaks–like romance — but all else provoked head-scratching.
- Essentially two overlapping films, suggesting a “puzzle” that may inspire some toward further analysis. My “explanation” is Fred is schizophrenic with a faulty memory, and the entire film is from his point of view. He murdered his wife, and the “mystery man” exists solely in his imagination. Some sequences are flashbacks and overlap with current events — for example, the final car chase is his recollection, cut short when he is executed by electric chair.
The Bad
- I could rewatch this flick and really try to work out the “explanation” but I’m so not motivated to do so. There’s an equal chance this is just a bunch of random stuff from aborted projects, cobbled together.
- Some interminably long and dull sequences. I expected it to end three or more times, yet it just kept going.
- No compelling characters. Bill is essentially a passive cipher, his wife a mere lust object. They’re visual symbols, and often no more interesting than colors flitting back and forth on a screen. I could somehow relate to the confused Eraserhead on the level of male fears of the opposite sex, and the equally confusing Mulholland Drive contained a brave, mesmerizing performance by Naomi Watts, but here — I got nothing.
Conclusion
I’ve enjoyed other Lynch films (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and even the confused Fire Walk With Me), but Lost Highway was a big disappointment. I can handle bizarre visuals and incomprehensible story lines, but seem to require at minimum, decent characters or acting to provide an entry point. Sorry Mr. Lynch, you literally lost me with this one.
IMDB: Lost Highway
Wikipedia: Lost Highway
Rotten Tomatoes: Lost Highway 51%
[…] in there that contradicts what I just wrote, and most likely everything is symbolic. But as with Lost Highway, I’m entirely unmotivated to figure it out, as I felt no love for these characters or the odd […]