First of all, I’d like to say that I found David Lynch’s Inland Empire to be a disappointment, but not entirely, because there were a handful of good scenes, but overall it’s a great mess, sugar-coated with bloated non-linear structure, which is so complicated that you start losing interest and simply don’t care anymore. Personally I could not feel for the characters, because the film failed to touch me emotionally. It was just the opposite to all the other Lynch movies that I adore with great enthusiasm, especially Blue Velvet, Elephantman, the Twin Peaks series and even Eraserhead, which is a truly great work of abstract art. I like non-linear structure because it makes you think, but this one went too far, straight into self-parody.
The first hour of Inland is quite good, the “story” begins to unfold and there is a certain amount of suspense. There are a few brilliantly executed scenes, like the title sequence, the Marylin Levins scene or one of my favorite, when Nikki/Sue realises that she fell in love with Devin/Billy. You can see it in her eyes! Now that’s great acting! Later on there is a death scene that is very disturbing but great and memorable, but the rest is not very intriguing. The end sequence is nice and ironic, but I thought it was confusing and broke the mood. As a standalone it would be awesome. The rest of the movie is overdosed mental masturbation. Nothing else.
DAVID LYNCH