Needlessly Complicated!. Review on Mulholland Drive Movie

After much brouhaha I did get the story, though what fails me and reading nearly 40 reviews of this movie I have decided I don’t like this movie! For no review or forum discussions answer on the motivation behind the movie has given me any satisfactory How conveniently easy! – is As far as I could feel, read and understand, what is it about the movie that is actually so stunning? on assuming audience this was something like a director didn’t really know what he was up to and then suddenly decided to jumble up pieces together and declare it a dream movie.

So did you make sense of the paragraph above? Yep, I bet you did. Well below is actually what I wrote as a paragraph – the above was just a “puzzle” you had to solve to put the sentences coherently correct even though they do appear correct at times!

After much brouhaha and reading nearly 40 reviews of this movie I have decided I don’t like this movie! For no review or forum discussions has given me any satisfactory answer on the motivation behind the movie – I did get the story, though what fails me is what is it about the movie that is actually so stunning? As far as I could feel, read and understand, this was something like a director didn’t really know what he was up to and then suddenly decided to jumble up pieces together on assuming audience and declare it a dream movie. How conveniently easy!

Ok – now allow yourself to ask me what exactly was my motivation behind this crap exercise? Err… I don’t know actually. So what is so extra special about my paragraph? Nothing really, frankly. Did you feel satisfied on solving the puzzle?

Welcome to Mulholland Drive.

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Here is a director gone crank, and under the assumption that he is weird and makes weird movies, we as an audience are allowed think ourselves to be weird too. Its not as if I don’t like mentally challenging movies or open ended movies, but this is way beyond it – the movie is a complex puzzle, well, just because the director wished it to be. Neither there is any coherence at the end of it all, nor any thought process on the eventuality of the movie. Every review I have read on the movie makes me laugh – every reviewer writes with coolest banality – “Its not about what is presented to you that matters in MD, but the challenge of so many interpretations that matter” – of course, ask the reviewer to give his own interpretation – “err… did you say something?” is going to be the reaction.

A well made mentally challenging movie conforms to an idea where the audience is allowed to think on the clues provided the director. A Well made puzzle is the one where there is a hint beyond the ordinary which keeps the person in the eternal quest. A well made jigsaw puzzle is still solvable – A badly made mental puzzle is what Mulholland Drive is – a pointless exercise in complex film making, with bizarre and convenient story twists suiting the director’s sensibilities. I can see why ABC refused to air this series.

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Coming to the movie – If I figure out exactly what is it about I will let you know. I know its about a dream, and then reality and then a vortex from which the dream becomes reality, reality becomes dream, characters invent characters, invented characters die, dead people come alive, people grow small, old couple are friends once, now are enemies, ghosts of past, a blue box, a cowboy who acts as a wakeup call to dreaming lady - and hold your breath – all you see is illusion.

The movie definitely has its plus points –the love making scenes between the lead actresses are simply hot and delicious – in fact, the best part of the movie I did say. Both the lead actresses, especially Naomi Watts conjures up a brilliant performance as both Diane and Betty. After seeing Naomi Watts performance its hard to believe that Harry Belly could actually win the Oscar – anyways that’s a different story ;-)

Coming to story itself, well to make this review seem longer here is a gist – You begin with a murder, a un related parallel thread about a movie star, a yet un related thread about a guy killing someone, and yet other characters unrelated who finally converge to a vortex, where the dimension changes of the movie – what you actually saw was a dream and from the vortex spins reality into different directions. Confusing? See the movie – It is needlessly complex, when the basic idea was itself complicated! What could have been a brilliant teaser of a movie on the brains is lost out because its so far complex I wonder how many people have the patience to solve the riddle – and even if they do, its so open-ended that it’s a futile attempt in the end because you don’t quite know if you are right or wrong, which brings back to my earlier point – then why take the pain?!

The master of the enterprise, David Lynch is completely to blame for this complexica-galatica of a movie. I frankly haven’t understood the genius behind this movie, since I think I can make an equally compelling and complicated movie – no kidding! Think about it for a second after watching Mulholland Drive, and you will realize, if audience willing, you could actually get away with anything – just make sure there are random references here and there, and make sure to tell your audience – “Oh you see, what you saw was an illusion, so forgive the rubbish!!”

Anyhow, on the whole, I did rate this movie 2 out of 5, and call it a hyped movie blown out of proportion. It’s a needlessly long winded, slow, needlessly complicated without any motivation, and quite frankly I couldn’t half-care what that blue box was all about in the end; that the very fact that it acted as an vortex between dream and reality had guffawing.

For better intelligent movie, watch Memento or the likes – at least its compellingly imaginative.