by Lars Lindahl visit my new web site: http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/larsattacks
"Blue Velvet" (1986)
Directed by David Lynch Written by David Lynch
Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, George Dickerson, Hope Lange, Brad Dourif, Jack Nance, and Dean Stockwell.
Grade: *** (out of four)
David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" begins and ends with colorful, bright shots of flowers and happy Americans mowing their lawns in a seemingly perfect American town. However, what lies inside this nominally safe atmosphere is a "strange world" of drug dealers, sadists, and murderers. The opening and closing shots are a wonderful contrast to the rest of the gloomy, disturbing film. They show not to make assumptions from first glance and that oddness is common in all places under all circumstances. Odd would be a perfect adjective to describe this film, its characters, its direction, and its story. Thankfully, the obscurity that "Blue Velvet" relies on is enough to make this film enjoyable. Since its elements are so originally weird, you never know what will happen next. This is the main goal of a movie; to be spontaneous and surprising. "Blue Velvet" miracuously succeeds at this even though it contains mediocre acting. Lynch creates such a hypnotic world that it is hard to resist his style of story telling.
The film starts off with the discovery of a severed ear by a college boy (Kyle MacLachlan). From this point MacLachlan finds himself involved with a lounge singer (Isabella Rossellinia) who has lost her son and husband to a kidnapping. The plot is much more detailed than the aforementioned and this is what makes David Lynch's story telling so amazing. MacLachlan becomes involved in a forbidden relationship, in another relationship that could have been taken straight out of a high school flick, and he is put into the shoes of a drug dealer who has some wild adventures with some wild friends. Through these multiple stories, MacLachlan lives multiple lives and as we follow MacLachlan, we are introduced to a variety of interesting subplots. Lynch masterfully builds these subplots but he does not piece them all together in the very end and make a convenient crowd pleasing conclusion. Instead he leaves some ambiguity and forces those curious enough to get the real meaning to watch the film several several times. Lynch has been known to do this with a number of his films meaning he may be too esoteric for some hoping to get a Hollywood ending where the good guy gets the girl and everything turns out fine. However, for fans of odd difficult indies, "Blue Velvet" could be just what they are looking for.
It is very hard to discuss "Blue Velvet" without discussing the performance of Dennis Hopper's sadistic Frank. Most of the other actors in the film were not very memorable. Kyle MacLachlan lacked one important aspect for his role, a personality. Laura Dern was consistently annoying. But Dennis Hopper stole every scene he was in. His evil character was just plain old frightening in his mannerisms from his obsession to velvet to his incessant breathing from a gas mask. Frank is a character that comes along once in a blue moon. Many producers know this and have inevitably begun to typecast Hopper as the bad guy. Just like his villain in "Speed", Hopper is over the edge with cursing and screaming every chance he has to speak. This harshness is exactly what Frank is, so weird and twisted that it is hard not to look at him, even if he theatens you to look away.
"Blue Velvet" has characters and stories you will never see in a movie again. For this sole reason it is recommended. But also see it to admire Lynch's obsession to avoid the norm. Even if this film is a little too weird for you, it's hard not to congratulate a guy for trying something new and sticking to it.
Grade: *** (out of four)
by Lars Lindahl visit my new web site: http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/larsattacks
(c) 2000 Lars Lindahl
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