Inland Empire (David Lynch, 2006): USA/Poland

Reviewed by Kevin Tran. Viewed on DVD

It is likely – if you’re not a David Lynch fan – that you have never seen or even heard about his last feature film, Inland Empire. Despite some stunts by the great director to give his three-hour-long experimental film epic some publicity and his leading actress, the wonderful Laura Dern, some recognition last year around Oscar season (he sat in a lawn chair on the corner of Hollywood and Brea, with a cow, and a sign that said “For your consideration: Laura Dern”), the film was not widely distributed and Lynch showed it around the world himself city by city and now it has been available on DVD. Which is a shame because I haven’t seen a more fascinating film since Lynch’s previous film, Mulholland Dr. (2001), and it would have been wonderful to see this film on the big screen. If you’re not a fan of Mulholland Dr. or David Lynch, you most certainly need to stay away from Inland Empire, the film that goes even further down the rabbit hole into the realm of surrealism and outward emotions.

The film centers on Laura Dern’s character, Nikki Grace, whose perception of reality become increasingly distorted after falling in love with her co-star (played by Justin Theroux) while making a remake of an unfinished Polish film that is supposedly cursed. The film begins with a scene about Polish prostitutes that doesn’t really have a direct link to the Nikki’s story in Hollywood. Actually, almost a third of the film is interwoven with sequences from Poland and one of these prostitutes watching a sitcom of rabbit people. Still, the film primarily revolves Dern’s lost identity, as she becomes increasingly distressed and confused between fact and fiction.

With the ability and ease of working with high definition camera, to which the entire film is captured on, Lynch encapsulates moments of realism that seem to mimic that of home movies. At the same time, weaving that realism with fantastic surrealistic images – images that will be ingrained in your memory for a long after watching the film. Lynch is a master when it comes to creating a story that reveals the inner psyche of human individuals and does this throughout the film using dissolves, colorful lighting, and with aid of a terrific performances from the cast. Especially Laura Dern. Her role is so incredibly complex, explicitly showing multiple emotions at once and flipping from constant shifts in tone, but she plays it with beautiful ease that implores the audience to get involved with her character’s mystery.

The story is convoluted and created within layers. Lynch actually began writing and shooting short scenes with Dern before even having a conception of making a full-length feature, he then later saw how these scenes could be linked together and set out to finish the feature film. Inland Empire is absolutely his most confusing film to date. Beating out Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr. as top nomination. There are aspects of lost identity, isolation in Hollywood, and emotional angst left over from these film that flood into Inland Empire. Which can all be felt while getting lost into the story and feeling these multi-layered emotions of Nikki. Being able to comprehend the plot matters very little to the importance of how successful the film a good or bad movie. Instead Lynch is concentrating less on story and more on exploring tones and attitudes, which seem much more interesting considering how most filmmakers struggle with this.

If you love films and have never seen a David Lynch film, I would highly recommend it (just make sure your television screen is set to the right brightness/color and raise the volume up), and get lost in the beautiful, twisted, warped mind of David Lynch.