LOST HIGHWAY (director/writer: David Lynch; screenwriter: Barry Gifford; cinematographer: Peter Deming; editor: Mary Sweeney; cast: Bill Pullman (Fred Madison), Patricia Arquette (Renee Madison/Alice Wakefield), Robert Blake (Mystery Man), Balthazar Getty (Pete Dayton), Robert Loggia (Mr. Eddy/Dick Laurent), Michael Massee (Andy), Natasha Gregson Wagner (Sheila), Marilyn Manson (Porno Star No. 1), Gary Busey (Bill Dayton), Lucy Butler (Candace Dayton), Richard Pryor (Garage Owner); Runtime: 135; October Films; 1997)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
David Lynch's Lost Highway, his first feature film after five years, is a surreal thriller with a puzzling plot, that asks a lot from the viewer, as far as accepting this far-fetched tale on face value. It's meant to be a non-conventional film, a shocker, an attempt at post-modern noir, an avant-garde sci-fi ghost story that is stylish and engrossing, but what it mostly is, is a confusing film that tries to be weirder than his Eraserhead and Blue Velvet films, but is too outlandish to be compared with those superior features. It also smacks of being pretentious, of putting down the characters in nonhuman terms, as if they are so unimportant that they can easily be reincarnated to appear as someone else, without any explanation being given. It was a cold story, seemingly with psychological undertones about multiple-personality disorders that stretches logic to the breaking point. But it held my attention throughout and concludes with a roller-coast ride down a dark, desolate highway, with an ending that does little to give meaning to the puzzle. But it does complete its narrative by tieing up the loose ends of what the characters were plotting and it keeps intact its pessimistic mood.
Fred Madison (Pullman) is a jazz saxophone player living in an ultra-modern posh house in the Hollywood Hills section of L.A., who is distraught because he suspects his sexy brunette wife Renee (Patricia Arquette) of cheating. A videocassette is left on their doorstep showing that their house is being observed. The next day another tape is found on the doorstep, it reveals the couple sleeping in their bedroom, which prompts them to call the cops to investigate. Fred, also, at this time, suffers from a series of nightmares in which he sees a mysterious, pasty-faced man (Blake). Coincidentally, at a party given by Andy, a friend of his wife's, he sees the same mystery man he saw in his dream. Strangely, this mystery man knows he was in Fred's dream. A third videocassette arrives, this one shows the results of a grisly murder, as Renee is bludgeoned to death and Fred, the presumably innocent victim has no memory of her slaying and doesn't believe he did it, yet is nevertheless convicted of first degree murder. And before you realize what's happening, Fred is in an isolated cell on Death Row awaiting to be juiced to death.
While in his cell, Fred unexplainably changes into a younger man, a garage mechanic named Pete (Balthazar Getty). Pete winds up in Fred's cell with a gash on his puss. Fred just vanishes for the time being. The captain of the prison exclaims, when he sees what happened, "This is some spooky shit we got here." It sounded like this is something that could have been said in an adult version of an 'Amos and Andy' sketch.
Pete when released from prison goes home to his supportive parents and punky girlfriend Sheila, and returns to his auto mechanic job. Mr. Eddy (Loggia), a ruthless gangster, admires the way Pete fixes his cars. On one of those car visits, he is accompanied by someone who could be Renee (still Arquette) but with blonde hair and who now goes by the name Alice. She is his mistress, and he is quite willing to kill anyone who makes a play for her.
Alice entices Pete to begin this dangerous affair with her, and when she fears Mr.Eddy is getting wise to them, she talks him into doing a robbery in the desert and running away with her.
Lynch then goes into exploiting his usual themes of violence, gore and dubious sexual situations and we also get to see Arquette stroll around in her underwear, when she's not completely nude. She was the least interesting of all the characters, partly because of her insipid performance and partly because the two characters she played were not particularly interesting.
Robert Blake, as an androgynous creep, is mysteriously portrayed as some sort of specter, who could be Renee and Alice in another form. Even Loggia has two identities and names, Mr. Eddy and Dick Laurent. I'm not exactly clear what it means, but a lot of things in this film serve as doubles, including the couple's house which is a double for the Lost Highway Hotel, where some heavy-duty action takes place in the film's concluding moments.
Both Bill Pullman and Balthazar Getty are effective in their roles, as they both seem to be acting in a low-key mode. While the Loggia role was too predictably gangsterish and seen too often in recent films to bring much to the table here (it was second-rate in maniacal comic-viciousness compared to Hopper's same type of role in Blue Velvet). The movie was somewhat effective not because of the actors or the story, but because it was elusive, atmospheric, unpredictable, different in form, and gracefully ethereal. It was a film that took chances, resulting in an uneven work, but in its dark moments was able to shine as a haunting film. If one wishes to make sense of this film, it would have to be done on a metaphorical level, and it would take dismissing logic and loving a film that relishes in its darkness and obscurity.
REVIEWED ON 1/31/2001 GRADE: C+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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