Twin Peaks 2 of 3 (Fire Walk with Me)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

Rated R    2hr 14min
Directed by David Lynch
Starring: Sheryl Lee, and Ray Wise

    Welcome back to my mini Twin Peaks binge where I try to collect all of the many thoughts about the insanity and fantastic(ness?) that is the world of Twin Peaks. I have already covered the original series, so the next stop is the prequel, sorta sequel movie that is Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Oh boy, does this film come with a million asterisks before you even watch it. First of all, if you were watching the original series and mad at the cliffhanger and wanted this movie to resolve everything, then be prepared for disappointment. If you were thinking that since this movie is a prequel and that you can use this to get into the world before watching the series, you are wrong. Because this movie would spoil the whole mystery of who killed Laura Palmer, which would drastically impact a newcomers enjoyment of the show I feel. If you are a fan of the original series and are expecting this movie to have the same tone and characters then you will be disappointed too. (This film is not as quirky as the show and is super dark dealing with sexual abuse and so much more.) If that's not confusing enough then add on the fact that this movie was initially intended to be the first in a trilogy wrapping up the series, and more than that, David Lynch filmed almost 5 hours of material that was hacked, slashed in editing and mostly left on the cutting room floor to get it to 2 hours and 14 minutes. (These scenes were later released in 2014 as Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces, with the scenes ranging from random scenes that should have been cut to absolutely crucial scenes that need to be in for context.) With all these compounding paradoxes and deliberate subverting of expectations is it any wonder that it was hated by fans and critics alike? But before I get into what I thought of this movie I should probably explain what this movie actually is. The basic plot of Fire Walk with Me is that this chronicles the last days of the life of Laura Palmer from her perspective, with a 30 minute prologue of worldbuilding and random other scenes that seem out of place, but are absolutely vital when we get to the The Return. But more on that later. 

    So... with all that said... what do I actually think of this movie? Well despite the fact that there were numerous problems on set, various actors from the original series either not wanting to be in it or coming back for  fear of being type cast (I'm looking at you Kyle MacLachlan), I still really love this movie. Like most of Twin Peaks it is strange and unlike anything else that I have ever seen, or likely will ever see, but that's not why I like it. This movie works and really is held together by one performance; Sheryl Lee's Laura Palmer. There are other fantastic performances, Robert Wise is excellent as always and there's a blink and you'll miss it David Bowie cameo (most of which was left on the cutting room floor unfortunately), but Sheryl Lee is something else. Throughout the original series you see the toll that Laura's death takes on her family, friends and the whole small town of Twin Peaks, and this movie really does a good job of showing why losing a person like Laura is such a tragedy. Knowing her through Sheryl Lee's fantastic performance for only 1 hour and 40 minutes or so and suddenly you get what everybody saw in Laura. This movie enhances the original show, which is hard to do and impressively pulled off.

    

    This movie has some of my favorite scenes in film, or at least some of the ones that will never leave my brain even if I never watch the movie again. The wash your hands scene, holy $@#!. Same goes for the traffic scene, but the death scene of Laura Palmer is something else entirely. I don't want to say too much, so I'll leave it at that. All in all this movie is one of the most underrated movies of all time, and certainly of David Lynch's filmography.  If you have previously written it off for any of it's many detractors that I've listed above, then I recommend that you accept it for what it is and rewatch it with an open mind. It's a new darker spin that recontextualizes Twin Peaks, and that's fascinating to me. I think that it always will be.