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It has its good points. When Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) sings the title song in the club, the film exudes wonderful atmosphere. Other oldies-but-goodies songs also are enjoyable to listen to. And the film's color cinematography, with its vibrant hues, is quite effective. Otherwise, this film is just awful.
Set in small town America in the early 1960s, the film opens with a young man named Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) who finds a human ear, while strolling through the woods one day. Jeffrey's curiosity propels the plot through a convoluted story involving strange characters, sex, drugs, and murder. It's all rather seedy. And the film's excessive violence is annoying.
The story's inciting incident is not remotely plausible. The plot makes no sense. Some of the dialogue is sophomoric. And the characters are dreadful. The Frank Booth character (Dennis Hopper) is so outlandish as to be cartoonish. His use of an oxygen mask is nothing but a gimmick. Hopper makes matters worse by overplaying the role. The Ben character (Dean Stockwell) is bizarre, and not in a good way. And Dorothy is an emotional wreck, whiny and easily manipulated.
The film's casting and acting are wretched. Kyle MacLachlan is as bad in this film as he was in "Dune" (1984). He's bland, lacks suitable expressiveness, and is annoyingly nerdy. If he were any stiffer, he could pass for a mannequin. I don't know who was worse: dull MacLachlan or farcical Dennis Hopper. Rossellini tries to act, but her performance comes across as comically melodramatic which, when combined with Hopper's histrionics, renders scenes that are unintentionally funny.
The film's moody atmosphere makes for suitable cinematic style. But the script, the direction, the casting, and the acting are so bad that the end result is a cartoon for spaced-out adults. And the emphasis on gratuitous violence suggests that Director David Lynch was making an effort to distract viewers from the film's hokey contrivances. I'd say he succeeded rather well.
score 3/10
Lechuguilla 20 January 2009
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2010629/ |
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29-11-2019 17:17:01
