Weird at "Heart"....

Mister-6

No one goes into a David Lynch movie expecting a normal viewing experience.

But what do you come out with when you've seen a movie that cross-breeds a road movie with "Bonnie and Clyde", "The Wizard of Oz" and "Blue Velvet" (Lynch's previous film)?  

Headache, nausea, dizziness and slurred speech, that's what.

This is not a movie, it's a litmus test for how far a movie can go and how much it can get away with.  And obviously, the MPAA didn't let it get away with TOO much.  But enough, to be sure.

As Sailor (Cage) and Lula (Dern) make their way through a bizarre world replete with oddball characters, twisted situations and nihilistic scenes of violence, it's kind of hard to juxtapose these with scenes of Glinda the Good Witch and Dern clicking her heels to get back home.


Lynch tries to make a joke of the whole thing: blood, guts, severed hands and heads and all, but this is the kind of humor you're more apt to get if you're into jokes about death, dismemberment and a lack of overall morals.


The only scene I did like in this whole mess is set in a dance club, where Cage roughs up a guy trying to put the moves on Dern, makes him apologize, has the guy get himself a beer and then jumps up with the band and breaks into an Elvis song while the girls in the club squeal and scream for joy. Seeing Cage sing like Elvis is worth the price of admission itself.

Almost.

One star.  For sheer guts, this movie has no equals, thank goodness.  But though it's "Wild at Heart", its "Heart" is not in the right place.  Just like its brain.

score 1/10

Mister-6 10 November 1999

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0289447/