Well, I’m usually a big David Lynch fan.  Granted, many of his films appear to be so bizzare that they may be hard to follow for many people.  Heck, still going back now and watching old episodes of his series Twin Peaks, I pick up on nuances that I never picked up on before, and certainly many of his movies tap into the bizarre, and the beautiful likewise, but many times they tap into the underbelly of the human psyche, making us feel somehow dazed when we end the movie.

I’m sorry to say that I didn’t even make it through Inland Empire, his latest movie, which stars one of his favorite actresses who also appeared in Blue Velvet and in Wild at Heart, Laura Dern, who is also one of my favorite actresses for her ability to play a diverse range of characters, but with a depth that seems so real we forget she’s acting.

Not to digress, but that is precisely the problem with Inland Empire.  The movie about halfway through became so disjointed and full of nonsense scenes that it gave us both a headache.  It seemed that nothing made any sense at all, but rather was just one collage of nonsense, as if you were dreaming, and couldn’t make heads or tails of what anything meant.  Throw in an apparent TV show that has people dressed up as rabbits, a French speaking man and woman, and scenes shown about people we don’t even know, and you’ve got one big mess on your hands. 

Now, one thing I will say is that I didn’t give it a chance through the massively confusing middle part of the film, and from what I’ve read in reviews after we turned it off halfway through, the middle is actually the most confusing and disjointed part of it all.  Also, it got a thumbs up from Roger Ebert, which I figure must give it some vote of confidence if he could make any sense out of all of it. 

I have to admit, I’m a little curious now at how it all came together (if at all), or if some of the majorly disjointed scenes were ever explained or given any semblance of meaning.  However, I honestly don’t know if I could subject myself to this movie again.  It left you feeling confused, pissed that you wasted your time, and just wondering “what the hell was David Lynch thinking”.  My boyfriend summed it up perfectly.  It was like a film that was TRYING to be a David Lynch film, but didn’t quite cut it.