Lost Highway (1997)

Now, I thought writing a review for Wild At Heart was hard...



Lost Highway was made in 1997 by David Lynch. This was made 5 years after Fire Walk With Me and is a prototype for the kind of storytelling that is featured in Lost Highway which was later mastered by Lynch in Mulholland Dr. (2001).
This film will be a hard one to summarize without spoiling, but here goes...
The film is about Fred Madison (played by Bill Pullman) and his very mysterious wife Renee (played by the beautiful Patricia Arquette). The couple start getting video tapes that are left outside of the door of the house. These video tapes being of someone filming the outside of their house and eventually someone being in their house and filming them sleep. Now, I'm not sure I should go any further because it would spoil. But I think when you watch it you'll be glad I didn't spoil, but you'd be wanting to know what really went on at all.



Now, this film is very Lynch. It contains mystery, suspense, violence, creepy characters, everything you'd expect to find in one of Lynch's films.

One stand out character is that of the "mystery man". Now, this man is never explained and never given a name. This makes this character scary. We don't know what this character wants, we don't know why he does the things he does in this film, we don't even know if he's real. One stand out scene involving the "mystery man" is during a party in which one of our main characters encounters the man, it involves a phone. You'll know what scene I'm talking about if you've seen it and you'll know what scene I'm on about when you watch it, trust me.

The film takes quite a large twist half way through, which isn't explained. This is my only problem with this film. I understand that Lynch's style is abstract and thought-provoking but certain things need explaining if you want some enjoyment out of it. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy this film, because I did! I just personally feel the film needed a bit more explanation from the narrative.

I think out of the Lynch films I've seen, this would rate second to last, with Eraserhead being last. Again, this is not saying that it's a bad film. I loved this film, if anything it's saying that Lynch's work is very above average and his second worst film (in my opinion) is still very good! It's a privilege to know of Lynch and be able to watch his films in my opinion. He knows how to engage an audience and how to excite, frighten and make an audience laugh all in the space of 5 minutes. This is the beauty of Lynch and why he's become one of my favourite directors. Even though this film contains everything needed for me to love it, the narrative has let it down ever so slightly. But still very recommended for Lynch fans.