Once I was asked why I don't give highest grades to the recently released films. The answer is rather simple – too many times I had been blown away after watching the film for the first time, only to see more and more flaws with each subsequent viewing. As a result, many films that I used to call masterpieces now seem overrated to me. So, in order to spare myself of critical embarrassments, I tend to be cautious and give highest grades only to those films that pass the test of time.
One of such examples is related to the career of David Lynch, American director who used to be rather obscure figure in the film world, known only among lovers of "artsy" cinema. His unexpected success with Twin Peaks television series brought him to the mainstream audience, and being Lynch fan became fashionable. At the apex of his popularity, in 1990, he directed Wild at Heart, strange combination of a road movie, melodrama and black comedy which would bring him his first "Palme d'Or". But his stunning success was marred with very vocal minority that booed his film at the Cannes Film Festival. Such event foreshadowed the strong division among the critics when they discuss this film -some hail it as genuine Lynchian masterpiece, and some call it cheap exploitation of his mainstream popularity. At first, I was blown away with this movie and thought of it as one of the best films of 1990s, a truly remarkable event. Later, I began to see its flaws and now I don't see it as especially important chapter in the history of cinema.
The plot of the film is based on the novel by Barry Gifford. Sailor Ripley (played by Nicolas Cage) and Lula Fortune (played by Laura Dern) are couple whose passionate love to each other withstands all the challenges, including bizarre attempt on Sailor's life that ended with Sailor serving two years for manslaughter. Sailor gets out of prison and Lula agrees to come with him to California. While two of them head west, stopping in flea-bag motels in Deep South, Lula's psychopathic mother Marietta (played by Diane Ladd) desperately wants to separate them and hires services of private detective and her part- time lover Johnny Farragut (played by Harry Dean Stanton). However, her motive is not just the well-being of her daughter; Sailor used to work for Marcello Santos (played by J.E. Freeman), local crime boss who also happened to be Marietta's partner, both in business and bed. While Santos' men join the pursuit in order to silence Sailor, the couple is faced with more immediate problem. Sailor and Lula run out of cash and get stranded in small town in Texas, so Sailor is accept the offer by menacing looking criminal Bobby Peru (played by Willem Dafoe) to take part in one of his capers.
Initial success of Wild at Heart could be explained with the strong impact felt by the first-time viewers. Even those members of the audience who used to be familiar with Lynch and his style of filmmaking, including the author of this review, were caught by surprise when exposed to the very original way he approached the story and the characters. Naturally, Lynch used unusual editing techniques, camera angles, suggestive photography and haunting musical score by his favourite composer Angelo Badalamenti to create dark and surreal atmosphere, which actually helped the not so original plot (doomed lovers on the run). But, the most interesting thing in Wild at Heart is barrage of shocks - Lynch bombards us with unexpected events and character traits, often challenging the endurance of the more squeamish audience. For example, the lead character of Sailor in the beginning of the film is attacked; he reacts with the most savage (and very graphically depicted) act of violence. Only few scenes later, he reacts to the similar act with equally irrational and almost surreal chivalry. Few people like Lynch are ready to combine so contrasting elements in the same movie and even fewer are ready to use them in the same scenes. One second we are subjected to the sappiness, chivalry and child-like innocence that belong to fairytales, only to be brought down to earth with foul language, graphic violence, explicit sex and, of course, Lynch trademark scenes featuring various forms of physical and mental deformity. That barrage of shocks and unexpected twists keeps the viewers at their seats - they simply must see what is going to happen next.
Unfortunately, somewhere in the second part of the film, shock begins to wear off, some of those bizarre twists and characters begin to look predictable and repetitive, most notably numerous The Wizard of Oz references (except the last surreal scene). Lynch also loses the sense of rhythm, there are many scenes that go nowhere or should have been trimmed a bit. The dialogue is also often weak, at least compared with Blue Velvet, Lynch's true masterpiece. Finally, after two hours, some viewers begin feeling that Lynch didn't take this film too seriously; whole purpose of Wild at Heart seems to be to Lynch's parody of himself and his cult of filmmaking. One of the last scenes, with its ironic homage to Kurosawa's Yojimbo, foreshadows the incoming reign of another cult favourite who had based his reputation on such homages - Quentin Tarantino.
Whether Lynch took plot and characters seriously might be debatable, but the cast definitely put great efforts. Nicolas Cage played one of the great roles of his career - Sailor Ripley is strange combination of street thug with the heart of gold and Elvis impersonator. Cage managed to make him both funny and human in the same time; we both laugh at him and sympathise with his plight. Unfortunately, his partners weren't up to the task, mostly due to Lynch's idea to have his characters as bizarre as possible, and his directing probably encouraged overacting. Laura Dern puts too much effort to make her Lula as different as possible from squeaky-clean all-American girl from Blue Velvet; the result is creature that engages in chain-smoking, swearing and torrid sex and, unfortunately, has disturbing tendency to make rather unappealing facial expressions. Her mother, played by Laura Dern's real mother Diane Ladd (who deserved "Oscar" nomination for this role) plays one of the most embarrassing incarnations of evil in the history of cinema - sex-crazed, drunk and downright stupid creature, way below the high standards set by Wicked Witch of the West. Even Willem Dafoe, who probably enjoyed opportunity to play Bobby Peru, character as far away from his best- known role of Jesus as possible, seems wasted here. His character appears too late to stick in memory compared with deformed and demented villains played by Grace Zabriskie and David Patrick Kelly. Always reliable Harry Dean Stanton, who plays only comparatively normal character in the film, is tragically underused. Luckily, there are many Lynch's old associates that improve impression about film with interesting and memorable cameo parts - Jack Nance, Sherilyn Fenn, Isabella Rosselini and Sheryl Lee.
All in all, Wild at Heart has some flaws, yet it is still one fine example of Lynch's directorial talent. Evident imperfection of this film shouldn't be the reason to discard it with the same zeal as it was hailed as masterpiece ten years ago. Wild at Heart is still an interesting piece of cinema and it can still provide intense viewing experiences, at least for those who watch it for the first time.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on January 2nd 2000)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/483-wild-at-heart
Critic: AAA