Inland Empire

Posted by Luis dos Santos (ldossantos@gmail.com) on June 14, 2007

David Lynch (Eraserhead, Mulholland Dr., Twin Peaks) is known for depicting in his films a singularly dark and disturbing view of reality, a nightmare world punctuated by defining moments of extreme violence, bizarre comedy and strange beauty. His films are set in small towns, with most scenes portrait as surreal, nightmarish and dreamlike sequences. Strange imagery in particular close-up, wide-angled-distorted faces and a meticulously crafted sound design are staples in his work. In Inland Empire Lynch gives us all of that and much more, in a unique experience which lasts around 3 hours but which will certainly stay in the audience’s mind much longer after living the theater.

It’s somehow common in this days to have movies with several endings. This time Lynch pushed the cinematographic art further by having a movie with several starts. The sinister black and white opening scene features a polish man and a prostitute with blurred out heads. It progresses into a living room of three rabbits, where a common world, almost non-sense dialog is being spoken over a soundtrack of sporadic laugh. A clear reference to the plotless Lynch’s Rabbits. After that what seems to be the plot’s main thread is introduced.

Laura Dern (Blue Velvet, Happy Endings) plays, in a typical Lynchian style, several roles including Nikki Grace, an actress which has had better days. She is cast as the lead in a romance called “On High in Blue Tomorrows.” Nikki’s butler answers the door to a creepy polish woman, played by Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks), claiming to be a new neighbor. Over coffee Nikki becomes alarmed when the woman tells her strange polish folk tales and seems to know too much about the film role she is in. Nikki asks the woman to leave, but she just keeps talking, telling her that if this were tomorrow, Nikki would be sitting ‘over there.’ Nikki looks and is horrified to see herself sitting on a different settee in her vast living room, and with her look Lynch transports us into tomorrow.

The film proceeds by showing how Nikki prepares for her dream role together with Devon (Justin Theroux; American Psycho, Mulholland Drive) in a film directed by the great Kingsley Stewart, a very good interpretation by Jeremy Irons (Lolita, Kingdom of Heaven). Only later are Nikki and Devon made aware of the project’s history: it is a remake of a previous movie, which doomed production ended as reality stepped into its fiction and the film’s onscreen/offscreen lovers were killed. From this moment on, Nikki’s reality begins to slip into that of her character and we are fully absorbed into Lynch’s universe where time twists and entangles over itself like an amorphous entity.

Particular attention should be given to the folk legend told by Nikki’s neighbor as it is the key to follow this point, as well as some of the twists which will follow, until one of the final scenes where Nikki sees the former polish actress.

In this film, Lynch continues the tradition of naming his projects after the location where they are set. Inland Empire’s title works at a double level, referring to both Southern California (the location where the film takes place) and the self-conscious, or the “inland empire” of the mind. Lynch was also responsible for the editing and cinematography and opted for a yellowish sepia looking through out the movie. The movie is mostly filmed with an handheld camcorder in documentary style. This choice is normally justified when portraying real-life events, therefore in this movie it seems to be in counteract to Lynch’s dream world. But then again, this type of disjuncture seems to be one of the effects that Lynch wants to achieve in this movie.

Inland Empire presents themes on prostitution, movies, people good with animals, yesterday being tomorrow, brutal murder, marital infidelity, memory and identity. These themes are presented almost as sketches, in a apparently inconsistent way, where only the attentive viewer can devise some structure. It seems as if Lynch opted to have a foggy main plot thread, where specific scenes are enhanced by those sketches, in order to reinforce their meaning and emotions transmitted to the viewer, as if putting some flesh in a main skeleton. This chimeric scene structure also includes a critical commentary on sitcoms, where the most banal actions and dialog of three rabbits elicit a fervous laugh of an absent audience.

The music score, featuring original tracks by David Lynch, a track by Angelo Badalamenti (Mulholland Drive) as well as several pieces by polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, is consistently moody, creepy and atmospheric.

It will be hard for someone to find a deep meaning or symbolism in this movie. The blurry main story line is patched with what seems incoherent random scenes, which seem to be used to deliver different kinds of emotions to the viewer. Nevertheless, it is a movie of profound impact and gut wrenching moments. The best way to appreciate it might be to sit back and let Lynch show you a part of his mind. Strongly recommended for hard core Lynch fans which will definitely watch and study it more than once.

Inland Empire is set to be released on DVD on Summer 2007.

Read more articles by Luis dos Santos