You may have an explanation.  You may think you have solved it.  You may think that you have cracked the code or found the sublime simplicity of it all.

Well, you are wrong.

Do you want to know why you are wrong?  Well, trying to "figure out" this film is like trying to decipher dreams.  Everyone will have a different interpretation and everyone will be both right and wrong.

The fact is that there are no absolute answers to find.  This film is more like a deep-image poem, floating images and music and themes and ideas and emotions in and around your senses.  Only you will be able to decide what it means for you.

I am certainly not going to give a plot recap or deliver my own interpretation in this review.  I am merely going to say that "Mulholland Drive" chilled me to the core, lifted me to the heavens, exercised my mind, stimulated my memory, and forced me to contemplate the the complexity of the human condition and experience in this world... in this life.  Not many movies can say they accomplished that!

I am almost at a loss to explain how much I love this film.  It has grown on me so much that it will probably always have a place near the top of my All Time Greats list.

I have watched it dozens of times, finding new angles and questions in each and every viewing.  The most memorable aspects of this dreamlike journey are: the terrifying and yet hauntingly beautiful score from Angelo Badalamenti; the spectacular performances from Laura Harring and, then newcomer, Naomi Watts; the surreal meeting with 'The Cowboy' (I still have nightmares about that guy); the scene where Rita leads Betty on the short cut through the bushes on Mulholland Drive (For a reason I cannot fully explain, it brings a tear to my eye every time I see it. I think it has the qualities of a death scene, or one of pure love and compassion); the emotional impact of the Club Silencio scene.  There are so many moments of sheer brilliance here.

"Mulholland Drive" is a film best watched alone so you are not tempted to talk about it afterward. If you allow yourself to sit and wallow in your own thoughts and opinions before analyzing and picking apart the film it will stay with you for a very long time.

I would say that the duality of Hollywood is cracked open in "Mulholland Drive". Obsession, Schizophrenia, Big Brother, The Hollywood Machine, Jealousy, Lust, Fate, Illusion, Rage, Control, Unrequited Love, Dreams, Desperation... I could go on and on with this list of what this film about... but I would probably be wrong... and right... and both... and neither.

Now, you will see this film one more time if this review is good.  You will see it two more times if it is bad.