A film that will divide audiences (Lost Highway (DVD))

Member Name: mmintfresh

Product:	Lost Highway (DVD)
Date:	25/07/02 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good film, Direction

Disadvantages: Not for everyone

Lost Highway's plot is very bizarre. At first it seems like a mysterious film noir. A married couple, Renee(Patricia Arquette) and jazz musician Fred (Bill Pullman) start to recieve weird videotapes on their doorsteps, at first the tape just shows the exterior of their house. The next tape is a lot more sinister, as the mysterious cameraman is inside the house and filming the two sleeping. The two call the police, who is typical Lynch style aren't the best of police officers, and are shaken up. Meanwhile Fred is convinced that his beautiful wife is having an affair and is very paranoid about this. One night at a party, Fred is approached by a very ghost like man (Robert Blake) who is convinced that he has meet Fred before, then tells Fred that he is in fact at Fred's house now and tells Fred to call him if he doesn't believe it. That is when it starts to get weird. The next tape is the freakiest yet. it shows Fred sitting next to his wife's mutilated corpse and then the exact same thing happened. But did Fred really do it?

Fred is sent to death row for the murder of his wife and starts to suffer from severe headaches. Then one night, whilst in agony over his head he changes from Fred to a young mechanic called Pete (Balthazar Getty). The film then changes direction. Pete is planning to run away with his gangster friends girlfriend Alice (a now blonde Patricia Arquette) characters from the two sections of the film start to intertwine and many questions are posed, is Alice and Renee the same person? are Fred and Pete different people?

So what the hell is this movie about? Lynch has kept his mouth shut only saying it is "a 21st century noir horror film". The way I see it coems from a line that Fred says at the beginning of the movie about videocameras "I like to remember things my own way. How I remembered them. Not necessarily the way they happened.". However I'm sure that it is possible to draw a thousand
different conclusions from this film because Lynch really leaves it to the audience to explain why.

The film itself is beautifully shot and constructed. One thing that particualry stands out is the lighting. From the opening credits with a barely lit highway. To the dark shadows of the Fred's house and eve the way that Fred is often seen in a red light. The dream sequences and the transformation bits also use light prominantely and makes the film wonderful to watch. Another feature that I noticed is the headbanging soundtrack that plays out throughout the film creating quite a dark, uneasy and brodding atmosphere that adds to the weird story.

The characters are typical of film noir, especially both the people that Arquette plays, Alice and Renee are both the ultimate unataintable women. Fred is the jealous husband and Pete is the young hunk running away with someone else's wife. There is also the very freaky person who appears without notice in an omnipresent kind of way. The situtations in this film range through the genres, horror, mystery, drama, thriller and even a bit of comedy when a tough guy gangster knwwn as Mr Eddy (Robert Loggia)pulls a man over and beats him for tailgating whilst screaming "I want you to obey the the goddamn rules! Fifty-fuckin' thousand people were killed on the highway last year 'cause of fuckin' assholes like you. " The actors all do a good job and make the story more intruiging.

This film is defintely not the kind of film for everyone. It leaves questions unanswered and is confusing. Many movie goers will find this very confusing and will switch of after Fred changes into Pete thinking it's too strange and bizarre. However Lynch fans and also people who want a break from conventional Hollywood will like it. Not a film for everyone but a good film if you give it a chance.

Summary: