Blue Velvet (1986)

Director: David Lynch

Story: David Lynch

Cast: Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern

Music: Angelo Badalamenti

Time: 120 minutes

Bottom-line: Still trying to make sense of the film

Some crazy film search starting from La La Land made me land at David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Getting a good impression of Lynch’s later film, Mulholland Drive, I expected this one also to be a mind-boggling tale, but it turned out to be a major disappointment. Here’s why.

The story is essentially an attempt to narrate a dark detective mystery. Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan) is home from college after his father has a near-fatal stroke. On his way home from the hospital, he discovers a severed ear. He responsibly takes it to Detective Williams (George Dickerson), who agrees to consider it. The detective’s daughter, Sandy (Dern) becomes friends with Jeffrey, and informs him about stuff she overheard from her father’s office room: that a woman named Dorothy Vallens (Rossellini) is involved in the case. Jeffrey decides to snoop around, and gets to know that Dorothy’s husband and son have been kidnapped by a psychotic, Frank Booth (Hopper), who forces her to perform sexual acts. What the rest of the film is about… is something I am trying to figure out myself!

 

MacLachlan as Jeffrey

Just like Mulholland Drive, Lynch is able to create – and exceptionally well too – an aura of suspense and mystery. The gruesome image of the severed ear, the grim milieu when Dorothy sings “Blue Velvet”, along with the sinister background score achieve this. After a certain point, however, things just get stranger: new characters out of nowhere, a sudden increase in sex and violence, and ultimately, we all end up scratching our heads, for what started out as a mystery ended as nothing more than a whole lot of loose ends. In the end, there is no plot twist, no suspense, nothing.

Dern as Sandy

Probably the sole plus point of the film is the acting, especially by Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rossellini. The former plays a psychotic kidnapper/murderer/sex addict, with his outbursts of anger, violent behaviour and masochistic nature. The latter plays his victim: a lone lady desperate to have her husband and son back from the clutches of Frank. While the characters of Frank, Dorothy, Jeffrey and Sandy are well-developed, the minor characters are not so: like the men Jeffrey spies on, or the man whom Frank takes Jeffrey to.

 

Hopper as Frank, and Rossellini as Dorothy

So, while Blue Velvet gets the starting right, nothing after the first half hour seems to go smoothly. Undeveloped characters, sloppy storyline, horrible climax and overall, an unsatisfactory mystery spoilt the film. The acting is the lone plus, but it’s not worth it.

My Rating: 1.5/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 94%