Rating: B-
Dir: David Lynch
Star: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Loggia
Okay. I’ve seen this twice now, and I’m still not sure I’ve got a handle on it. Without giving too much away, it’s less a plot-line than a plot-circle, wrapped around Pullman as a convicted murderer who wakes up, literally, a new man. The first half has some creepy moments, but it burdened by banal dialogue which Lynch attempts to give weight by lengthy meaningful pauses. Post-transformation into Getty, things perk up notably, with Loggia’s evil gangster deserving to be up there alongside Dennis Hopper in the canon of Lynch’s villains. From there on, you slide down into a universe of porn films, gangster’s molls, death-by-coffee-table and Gary Busey cameos — the end result is somewhere interesting to visit, but you certainly wouldn’t want to live there. Defiantly unconventional and challenging, one viewing is certainly not enough; and I’m not sure two will do, either.