Flak Magazine: Analysis of Mulholland Drive, 10-19-01

Plot, it must be remembered, is only part of the enjoyment of movie-going. At times anyone, for whatever reason, may come away from a film with at best a hazy understanding of its structure, yet a deep sense of fulfillment. This seems particularly common among viewers of David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.

The film brims with details calling for the audience's attention, and many of these can distract from an understanding of its logical plot. References to the director's former work, as well as comic acting and premises, draw attention away from moments necessary for audience members to fill in the blanks of the story. Which is not to say that these distractions are unnecessary or harmful; they make the film enjoyable on many levels. But, if you have already seen Mulholland Drive and remain confused, this walk through its story may be helpful. Warning: If you have not seen the movie, please stop reading now. (Go here.) This article is 100 percent spoiler.

A good way to dissect a complicated movie is to make the distinction between plot and story. The plot is the actions you see on the screen, in the order you see them. The story is all the events, including unseen ones, in the order they "actually occurred." Story places exposition and flashbacks first and reorders nonlinear plots linearly, and filters out the lies of unreliable narrators such as those in The Usual Suspects or Memento.

For those who had trouble reconstructing Mulholland Drive's plot into story upon first viewing, here is a possible reading: Diane (Naomi Watts) wins a foxtrot contest in the Midwest and follows her acting aspirations to Los Angeles. Camille Rhodes (Laura Harring) beats her out for a movie audition, but the two become friends and later lovers. Diane watches Camille start to drift away and become involved with her director, Adam Kesher (Justin Theroux). Camille starts refusing Diane sex, and invites her to a party thrown on Mulholland Drive by Adam. At the party, Camille and Adam announce their engagement; also, Diane meets Adam's mother (Ann Miller), sees a girl (Melissa George) kiss Camille, and notices a cowboy (Monty Montgomery) walk by.

Diane's obsession with Camille deepens. She goes to a restaurant named Winkie's to pay a hitman (Mark Pellegrino) to kill Camille. He tells her he will drop off a blue key when the contract has been fulfilled. At some point, Diane switches apartments with her neighbor. In her new apartment, she goes into deep depression, sleeping for three weeks in the fetal position.

There she dreams up an elaborate fantasy. In that dream, Camille is split into two characters. The first, later identified as Rita, is involved in a car accident on Mulholland Drive (the same location as the party) and loses her memory. She takes sanctuary in an empty apartment, in a complex run by Coco (Justin's mother). Betty (Diane's alter ego) arrives in Los Angeles and goes to stay at that same apartment, left vacant by her aunt. There, she meets Rita and chipperly decides to help Rita get her memory back. They find money in Rita's purse (just as we had seen it in Diane's when paying the hitman) and a strange key (similar in color but not shape to the hitman's).

Meanwhile, the director, Adam, is being pressured by a secret syndicate to recast his lead actress. They want him to choose a girl named Cammie Rhodes — the second part of Camille's split-by-Diane personality, played by the woman who Diane saw kiss Camille — but he refuses. Going home, he catches his wife cheating on him. Adam retreats to a shoddy hotel, where he discovers his bankruptcy at the hands of the syndicate, and learns he must meet with a man called "The Cowboy." He does, and the idea is reinforced that he must choose Cammie Rhodes for his lead.

Many of the sublots revolve around a diner named Winkie's. In one, a man (who had been at the register when Diane paid the hitman) recalls his vision of doom to his psychiatrist. In another, the hitman, now working for the syndicate, searches for Rita, killing an old friend and questioning a prostitute (dressed in an outfit similar to the one Diane wore to meet the hitman). Betty and Rita go to Winkie's, where the waitress's nametag (which said "Betty" when Diane met the hitman) reminds Rita of a possible lead to her past. They look up the address belonging to that name and decide to go there after Betty's audition the next day.

At her audition, Betty is excellent, garnering the attention of a talent scout, who whisks her away to the audition for Adam's movie. But Adam concedes to casting Cammie Rhodes before Betty can audition, although he is obviously drawn to Betty. Betty leaves in order to go with Rita to see the mysterious Diane. They find Diane dead (in the same position Diane is sleeping) in her apartment.

Betty and Rita go home, awkwardly admit an attraction to one another, and make love. Rita cries out "silencio" in her sleep, insisting they go to a performance art theater. There, Betty weeps as a woman sings beautifully, but the evening's performances imply that nothing they see is real. Upon finding a strange blue box in Rita's purse, they rush home.

Once home, Betty disappears, and Rita opens the box with the blue key, only to be sucked inside. The dead Diane of the dream is told to awaken by the Cowboy, returning Betty to her physical body.

Now, the dream is over, and Diane wakes to brew some coffee. Her neighbor comes over to pick up dishes left behind in the apartment switch. Diane brutally masturbates on her couch and flashes back to her experiences with Camille: making love, going to the party, visiting her on set as she flirts with Adam. Her short scenes in the apartment are the only ones that we can take as happening "now," unclouded by Diane's memory or fever dream. At the end, regret and hallucinations overcome Diane, and she shoots herself.

Remember, this is only one interpretation of the story of "Mulholland Drive." Other interpretations can be made, or one can enjoy the film without bothering with an interpretation — an illogical film is still entertaining. But the filmmakers clearly went to great trouble to give Mulholland Drive a logical, complex structure, and giving up on the search for that structure does the film a disservice.

— Andy Ross (apross@earthlink.net)