Film Review: Inland Empire

Director: David Lynch

The latest of David Lynch's films, Inland Empire was released in 2006 and was his first feature film since the sublime Mulholland Drive. It features many actors who he has worked with before like Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton and Laura Dern who plays the lead in this having previously appeared in Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. It is seen as the most complex of Lynch's films to date and has polarized critics opinions with many feeling it is just a collection of scenes thrown together and others saying it's a complex narrative with a logical story beneath it, as expected I am swayed towards the latter.

The Rabbits, a recurring theme throughout the movie

The film opens to a women crying (The Lost Girl) whilst watching TV after she has a disagreement with a client implying she is a prostitute. She is watching a surreal programme with rabbits that speak to each other (picture above). Following this prologue we see Nikki Grace (the incredibly versatile Laura Dern) speak to a sinister Polish visitor (Grace Zabriskie) about a film she has auditioned for. The visitor says she will definitely get the part but then rambles on about how it will involve adultery and murder as well as her losing track of what time it is due to confusion. For the opening hour everything appears to be normal and linear as Nikki joins her director Kingsley (Jeremy Irons) and co-star Devon (Justin Theroux). But then things begin to get complicated as the actual filming starts and we have no idea what's being filmed for the movie, what real life is and why there is a lot of scenes exclusively in Poland?

Nikki Grace/Sue Blue (Laura Dern)

This film has a lot of the Lynch trademarks with the confusing and complex narrative that leaves open many interpretations. It also has the trademark dream imagery which distorts what you think is actually really happening and what is being dreamt. In many ways it is similar to Mulholland Drive with it being about an actress getting a job in Hollywood and then the line of reality being increasingly blurred. The film could be described as low-definition compared to the pin-sharp visual experience we are used to these days.

The scene near the beginning with the Polish visitor explaining that the film Nikki will star in involves murder before she rambles on about being confused about the time is deeply unsettling and sinister. It sets the tone for the rest of the movie perfectly as the next hour is actually quite light hearted before a drastic change in filming style as many different plots and events unfold. Laura Dern is superb playing multiple roles in the film changing from a well-spoken American actress to a prostitute from the Deep South with an incredible accent.

Now for my theory on what is happening, with Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive it is also open to debate what the narrative is and what it means but I was able to come up with an idea that seemed to make sense to me. But with Inland Empire I am still unsure about my ideas behind it, David Lynch said the film was ''more straight-forward than it seems'' which influenced what I thought was happening.

Polish Visitor (Grace Zabriskie) who warns Nikki of what's to come

The key to my first theory is that we do not know what the plot of the film On High in Blue Tomorrows actually is, the Polish visitor says it is about adultery and murder but Nikki disagrees so at no point do we learn the plot. I believe that the first hour is all reality with Nikki getting the job to star in the movie and that after the hour mark we slip into 3 separate plots which detail Nikki's life outside the movie where she is trying so hard to play a role she isn't right for that she cannot distinguish acting from reality, her playing Sue Blue in the movie and the Polish segments are the original version called 47 which saw both the lead actors murdered before it finished.

Unfortunately this doesn't answer enough for me to be satisfied with it, other theories include that Laura Dern's character is a Polish woman locked into a prostitute ring that is being run by The Phantom and that she dreams about being an American actress starring in a popular movie. I have too many reservations and questions that raise doubts to agree with that as the narrative. There are many other thoughts out there and I have read quite a few of them with none of them proving close to convincing but this is the magic of Lynch. Everyone draws such different ideas and thoughts from the same movie in front of you, in some ways this is cinema at its best.

4/4 my mind was officially blown by this movie and will definitely be re-watched soon