411mania.com: Movies - 31 Years, 31 Screams: Lost Highway

In the cache of bizarre David Lynch films, perhaps none is more bizarre than Lost Highway, Lynch's 1997 surrealist psychological thriller.

Lynch, as always, shows that he has his influences in the right place. Although a sharp observer often finds touches of Welles, Hitchcock, and even Clouzot in Lynch's work, it's more often that one can see the work of traditional art, rather than simply other filmic influences. He often evokes Goya, Munsch, Dali and LaTrec, sometimes in the span of the same scene.

The plot itself is hard to define, even impenetrable to a certain degree. In fact, if one were to focus solely on the plot, they would miss the point. This is style as substance, and what could be more post-modern than that? As a result, this review will contain many spoilers and yet spoil nothing because you truly have to see the film to appreciate it.

Bill Pullman plays Fred Madison, an angry and frustrated Jazz musician. Pullman, always cast as the nice-guy everyman, is perfect in this role. He suspects his wife Renee (Patricia Arquette) of cheating on him. There are calls in the middle of the night, and she seems distant. Then again, everyone in the first thirty minutes of this film seems like they are a 45 record played on 33 1/3 speed. It creates a dreamlike state that's as disorienting to the viewer as it is to the characters.

One day, Fred receives a call on his intercom. "Dick Laurent is dead," the familiar-but-unplaceable voice on the other end says. Fred doesn't know who Dick Laurent is and never gets to meet his mystery caller.

Tension mounts between the Madisons as they find a package left on their doorstep. Inside is a VHS tape showing the outside of their house. It must be from a real estate agent, they reason. However, they receive a second tape not long after. This one is longer and shows the voyeuristic intruder traveling down their hallway and into their bedroom, filming them as they sleep.

The Madisons call the police, but they seem almost disinterested. With no sign of forced entry, the police aren't much help. Fred points out that the Madisons don't even own a video camera. "I like to remember things my own way – not necessarily the way they happened," he explains.

The Madisons arm their alarm system, and Renee takes Fred to a party hosted by sleazoid Andy (Michael Massee). It's clear that there is some sort of relationship between Renee and Andy. Fred picks up on it right away. Is he paranoid? Well, you're not paranoid if they're really out to get you, and this is David Lynch.

Fred mingles and runs into a bizarre man known only as "The Mystery Man" in fan circles. Played by a pale, unblinking Robert Blake, the Mystery Man is a distinctly Lynchian character. The Mystery Man is described as "a friend of Dick Laurent's." He tells Fred that they've met before. In fact, he says, he's at Fred's house right now. Fred laughs it off as a joke, but the Mystery Man tells him to dial from his cellphone. Fred dials (a number ending in "666," it should be noted), and the Mystery Man answers on the other end. Before Fred can demand an explanation, the Mystery Man turns and leaves.

When they get home, Fred searches the house but finds no sign of an intruder and no forced entry. The next morning, he finds another tape. This time, the intruder stalks all the way down the hall into the bedroom and finds Fred huddled on the floor. Renee is in a pool of blood, cut in half.

Fred wakes up in a police station, being interrogated by detectives. He has no memory of the murder, but as they continue to work him over, he begins to wonder if he truly has killed his wife.

While in his cell, Fred experiences severe headaches and visions of a burning house in the middle of the desert. His headache becomes so severe that he suffers what can only be described as a seizure. When he wakes up, he is Pete Dayton (Balthazar Getty), a mechanic.

Obviously, the police can't keep Pete and execute him for a murder that Fred committed. Pete doesn't even have any memory of how he got into the cell. His parents come to collect him, but they refuse to explain to him *why* he's in jail, even though they clearly know.

The police release him, but they keep a tail on him 24 hours a day, when he's home with his parents, having sex in the backseat of his car with his cute girlfriend (Natasha Gregson Wagner) or working at Arnie's (Richard Pryor, in his last performance) auto shop.

While at the auto shop, Pete spies Alice Wakefield (Patricia Arquette in a dual role). She's the moll of gangster Mr. Eddy (Robert Loggia, that's "R" as in Robert Loggia…). The police recognize Mr. Eddy by a different name, though – Dick Laurent.

Mr. Eddy takes a shine to Pete, but Pete obviously has designs on Alice. Alice reveals that Eddy is forcing her into pornography. Eddy begins to suspect Pete and Alice are having sex, and he implies that Pete is a dead man if he ever confirms it. Like a good femme fatale, Alice comes up with a plot – rob Andy (Renee's friend from the opening) and fence his stuff so they have enough money to run away together.

Despite threats from the Mystery Man and Mr. Eddy, Pete goes through with the plan. Andy gets killed in the struggle, and Pete suffers a vision that Alice will betray him. They drive to the desert – the same house that Fred saw in his vision – but there is no one there. Alice entices Pete to make love with her on the sand. As he reaches climax, he tells her he wants her, but she coolly leans in and tells him, "You'll never have me."

She gets up and walks into the house, and when Pete stands up, he is Fred Madison again. Fred chases her into the house, but she's already gone. The Mystery Man is waiting for him and tells him that her name is not Alice but Renee. Fred is so frightened that he runs to his car and drives away.

Fred pulls in to "The Lost Highway Hotel" and finds Alice and Dick Laurent having sex in their hotel room. Alice leaves after they finish, and Fred storms in, beating the hell out of Laurent and dumping him in the trunk of the car.

Fred drives back to the desert, but Laurent pops out of the trunk, and they struggle. The Mystery Man hands Fred a knife, and Fred slices Laurent's throat. The Mystery Man shows Fred a porno movie starring Alice (or Renee) and Marilyn Manson before finishing Laurent off.

Fred, pursued by the detectives, drives back to the house he shared with Renee, runs up to the intercom, and speaks a familiar phrase. "Dick Laurent is dead."

Interpretations

So, what do we do with this?

There are some obvious psychological interpretations. The idea floated around before the film went into production was that Fred was in a "psychogenic fugue state" where the sufferer creates a new identity and, indeed, a new reality around him to cope with the guilt struggle that he's going through. That would explain the duality of much of many of the characters: Renee/Alice, Mr. Eddy/Dick Laurent, Fred/Pete.

The explanation, then, would be that Fred killed Renee near the opening of the film, and the Mystery Man was part of his conscience (or subconscious conscience). Fred stated that he didn't like video cameras because "he liked to remember things as he saw them, not as they were." In this case, it could mean that the video tapes are his subconscious mind interrupting the reality he's created for himself. Once the truth – the truth about what he did – is finally revealed to him, Fred can't deal with it and creates a new reality in which he is Pete.

The final shot of the film with Fred suffering another attack could mean that he's being electrocuted. He suffers his first major attack while staring at a light bulb. Has Fred been in prison the whole time, constructing this new reality as a way to cope with his guilty? And, if so, is the final shot signifying his death in the electric chair and his descent into the abyss (or "lost highway")?

Or…

Is Pete's life the reality? Are Fred and Pete just pawns (or victims) in the Mystery Man's game? The Mystery Man and porn-maker Andy are the only two crossover characters between realities. Dick Laurent is mentioned by name in Fred's reality, but he's known as Mr. Eddy in Pete's.

And what of Alice/Renee? Clearly, it's significant that they are played by the same actress. The film doesn't have very nice things to say about women. It's obvious that Renee is cheating on Fred (just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you!). She is involved with this sleazy other man, and she's dissatisfied in the bedroom. This is classic noir behavior on Fred's part.

Alice is even worse than Renee. She's the classic femme fatale, seducing the unwitting dullard in with her sexuality and getting him to do her dirty work before jettisoning him for someone else who suits her needs. Only, in the world of David Lynch, very little of it makes much sense. She's being conscripted into porn by Andy but she turns to lowly mechanic Pete instead of powerful Mr. Eddy? It's that kind of divorce from context that makes the film distinctly post-modern in its approach. Why does "X" happen? Because that's what Lynch wants. Judge it based on that merit and not a narrative one.

The 411: Perhaps not surprisingly, the film was not well-received. Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs down, which Lynch famously used for advertising purposes. The film never reached DVD in America, which is quite odd because it's exactly the type of film cinema geeks like me would have bought in DVD's infancy. If you're looking for just a fun little movie to occupy your time, Lost Highway isn't it. If, however, you're looking for a genuinely challenging film that fills you with a constant sense of dread, this is prime Lynch. A-

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