INLAND EMPIRE (2007)
Director: David Lynch
Writer: David Lynch
Starring: Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Jeremy Irons, Harry Dean Stanton
Language: English
Runtime: 172 Minutes
Age Rating: 15
Genre: Mystery, Drama
Reviewed by Ross Miller
After seeing or rather experiencing David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE (He insists it always be written in capitals) I am finding it rather difficult to express it in words. Five words sprung to mind, five simply put but not necessarily simple descriptions that I immediately felt afterwards; WEIRD, INTENSE, FRIGHTENING, CAPTIVATING and CONFUSING. The initial and the latter being the norm within the world of David Lynch.
I can’t, and I doubt anyone else can either, describe the full premise of INLAND EMPIRE, but to my best knowledge this is the basic plot. An actress, Nikki Grace (Dern), gets a big part in a new movie. But when she falls for her co-star (Theroux) she begins to realize her life is mimicking the fictional film they are shooting. Adding to this she finds out that the film is actually a remake of a Polish film that was never completed due to a tragedy.
Like I said I am finding it very difficult to express my feelings about this film and my impressions of it in words. To begin with this is reminiscent of almost all of Lynch’s films, in that they could get by entirely on mood alone. Nine times out of ten if you take a single scene from damn near any of Lynch’s films (especially this one) you can bet that the mood and atmosphere is a hell of a lot different than the scene pre or proceeding it. But that’s not to say that there isn’t more to sink your teeth into and think about, it’s just that the moods that Lynch manages to create are, for me at least, a reason to spend time on them.
For almost a 3-hour runtime there is a sense of dread, unease, creepiness and uncertainty maintained in a fashion only Lynch could accomplish. These are only abruptly contrasted for moments at a time by purposeful humour or the quick change to a completely different scene/mood. I found myself at one minute to be on the edge of my seat, either in excitement of “what’s going to happen next?” or in pure dread and occasionally fear, and the next to be laughing at something because of how peculiar and random it seems to be. Something which is rare for me, or should I say rare in general.
The shifting and changing of identities, started with Lost Highway, and then taken to a higher level with Mulholland Drive, are taken into full effect here. If you thought you had felt confusion before just wait to you experience INLAND EMPIRE. It will take you further down the rabbit hole (of Lynch’s mind and just in general) than you have ever been before (funnily enough there is a scene involving rabbits to, in a way, reinforce this).
This is one of the best examples of a film that is not for everyone. Unless you are a Lynch fan or just a fan of experimental and weird cinema, I can guarantee you will not like this film. Those who stumble upon it by accident, perhaps wrongly recommended by someone, and those who are fans of conventional cinema in every sense of the word will no doubt hate this film. And I doubt if any movie fan of that type would want to and even be able to make it through the almost 3-hours. But in a strange Lynch-esque way that is a good thing. INLAND EMPIRE I feel was made for fans of his work and not for your average movie-goer. It is reminiscent of almost all of his previous work, sometimes to the point of ‘parody’ or ‘homage’. But those who appreciate this master of cinema will either find those moments funny because they remember it or extremely enjoyable because they remember it. At least all of us Lynch fans now have a film that we can look upon as a sort of amalgamation of everything he has done beforehand, to some extent anyway.
For anyone who is not a Lynch fan already but think they might want to start their journey I can only give you one piece of advice; do not watch INLAND EMPIRE as your first David Lynch film. You will be bewildered in the worst of ways and it will no doubt put you off watching another one of his films in your life. Now we wouldn’t want that, now would we?
Looking at the film from afar and not attempting to unravel the many layers it has will no doubt seem like just a 3-hour film filled with random scenes that barely have any connection with each other. But once looked upon more thoroughly and with more persistence you will find something so much more than that. The movie within a movie, story within a story idea is not one of originality. We have seen it plenty of times before, but what’s brilliant and most refreshing to witness is that hard-to-handle idea being used in a completely different way, and handled in a very knowing and professional way by Lynch. Here we have multiple stories entangled within each other, one of an actress acting in a film, another of a Polish murder story and many more that would take multiple viewings to uncover. And trying to decipher which story is which and at what time (and it what order for that matter) would be an act of futility. It’s better just to go along with the film instead of seeking out answers that may not even exist.
On a personal level I loved absolutely every second of this film. No matter how frightening, how humorous or how mind-blowing the film was at any time I can’t say I preferred one part over any of the others. To label INLAND EMPIRE the best film of the year would not be an unbelievable thing to say, it is bay far my favourite anyway.
At one point in the movie Dern’s character delivers a line that is nothing but a pitch-perfect way to describe the film you have just experienced, “…it’s kinda laid a mind-fuck on me…” You don’t say.
