Lost Highway Movie Review

Lost Highway (1997)

Rent Lost Highway on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: David Lynch & Barry Gifford
Directed by: David Lynch
Starring: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Blake, Robert Loggia
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Anonymous videotapes predict a musician's murder conviction while in a parallel story a gangster's girlfriend leads a mechanic astray.

Verdict
I like it, but part of that is the conundrum of what the plot that this leaves behind means. It's nearly incoherent, leaving behind a puzzle that seems almost solvable. This is two stories in one with no explanation. Is this plot the dream of a death row inmate? Is it the nightmare of a mechanic involved with the wrong woman? Everyone is looking for an escape but that remains temporary and elusive. This is a mystery in a mystery. Using the dialog I tried to figure out what really happened and what it means, but it's left open precisely to generate multiple theories. It's a mind bender, and that's the draw.
It depends.

Review
This has such an ominous start. "Dick Laurent is dead."  Someone says that into Fred's (Bill Pullman) door bell intercom, but he doesn't see anyone when he checks. The movie has a dream like quality, disconnected from reality with no real plot. It's a  collection of creepy scenes.

Fred is a musician with a gig at the club that night. His wife Renee (Patricia Arquette) doesn't show, and we're left wondering if that's a sign of strife in their relationship. When they're sent a handheld video of their home's exterior, she dismisses it despite how creepy the act is. They couple receive another video, this time the person recording inside their home as they're asleep. They call the cops, who don't do much.

Patricia Arquette, Bill Pullman play Fred, Renee Madison

At a party, Fred meets a strange, pale man that states they've met before and that he's at Fred's house right now. The tension in this scene is off the charts. Lynch is a master and creating an intense sequence. The pale man hands Fred his cell phone and tells him to call home. The pale man answers the phone while also standing in front of Fred. Neither Fred nor we understand, and the pale man states he doesn't enter a place he's not invited which has its own implications. Later the host tells Fred the pale man is a friend of Dick Laurent. Who is Dick Laurent?

Another video shows Fred killing his wife, and she ends up dead. Fred is arrested and sent to jail. I wasn't sure if he did it, the stalker did it, or he was disassociating from reality. Then again, how could the stalker put Fred in the video?

Robert Blake, Bill Pullman play Fred Madison the Pale Man

Something happens, which is as much explanation as the movie provides, and Fred becomes or is cosmically replaced with Peter Dayton (Balthazar Getty). No one knows how, but Dayton is released as he isn't supposed to be there. Fred seemingly no longer exists. The narrative pivots to Dayton, a mechanic that works for local gangster, Mr. Eddy (Robert Loggia). The gangster's girlfriend Alice (Patricia Arquette) has an interest in Dayton, and soon they're involved. The same actress plays Fred's wife and the Mr. Eddy's girlfriend. She's the object of desire in both scenarios.

Is Dayton Fred's dream or Fred Dayton's dream? Part of this movie is trying to decipher what's happening and what any of it means. 

Balthazar Getty plays Pete Dayton

Alice coerces Dayton into a robbery, though it seems Mr. Eddy has his suspicions about Dayton. Dayton encounters the pale man who states they've met before, echoing the conversation he had with Fred. The pale man talks about a death sentence, a place where there is no escape. That has to be what's going on. Fred was imprisoned, and the story that follows is his fantasy. A wish where he's able to walk right out of jail and get the woman. That's when Dayton turns into Fred. Fred is running away, much like Pete was. Fred finds Mr. Eddy with his wife. This is when it seems like what happened is that Fred found, or likely only thought, his wife was cheating. He acted and went to jail where he concocted a romance story to pass the time, some sort of wish fulfillment where he could have the girl. Even then it sours because Fred can't escape reality. The pale man helps break the illusion. Who is the stalker? I wonder if it's Fred. He's spying on his wife.

Even then, that theorizes that what we see is the asynchronous order of events. Fred should end up in jail at the end, not the beginning. It could be attributed to how his thoughts would be scattered due to the circumstances, but this movie isn't designed to have a single read. It's about jealousy, fear, and fantasy. I like this movie, but I think the majority of people would leave this wishing for a more straightforward narrative. I like that I have to solve this story. We're left with clues and dialog fragments that may hold the key.