Wednesday 19 October 2011

Lost Highway

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Year:1997
Country of origin:USA / France
Director:David Lynch
Genre:Surrealist crime thriller
Starring:Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette
Rating:3/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116922/
Tagline:No tagline
Favourite line:Guard 1: "Man, that wife killer looks pretty fucked up." Guard 2: "Which one?"

Typically rambling and vaguely demented fare, from that master of the pseudo-psyche out, David Lynch.

Bill Pullman plays Fred Madison, a saxophone player who discovers a videotape on his doorstep one morning. It shows his house from the exterior. Another tape shows up, this time showing him and his wife sleeping. He calls the police, who are baffled. Next thing we know, he's watchng another videotape, this time of his dead wife, and he's being acussed of his wife's murder. Prosecuted, sentenced, he begins his life in prison, but one night a guard looks through the food slot in the door, and discovers that Madison isn't in there anymore. He hasn't escaped. He's just changed into someone else: a car mechanic called Pete.
Suddenly, the action switches from Madison to Pete, and we follow his life.
At first nothing extraordinary happens, but then he becomes involved with a sinister gangster, whose wife looks a lot like the dead wife of Madison, and there are other coincidences too.
Slowly, Madison and Pete's worlds are drawn together.....

Confusing, deliberately obtuse, yet provocative enough to shock the masses, this is an intriguing movie.
The industrial soundtrack works quite well (Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails et al), and there are some genuinely traumatic moments, I just felt the whole thing was a little flaccid in places.
Too much fat on the bones.
Not enough directness.
Still, an interesting watch.

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