Writer and Director David Lynch loves to torture his audience with a stiff left jab. He is not only one step ahead of the rest of us. He's so far ahead we may never catch up. But Lynch takes mercy on his viewers, while delivering perhaps his most endearing classic with the masterful 'Blue Velvet.' When young Jeffrey, played by the underrated Kyle McLachlan, returns home from school following his father's sudden and serious illness, He takes a shortcut on the way home from the hospital. While angling through a vacant lot he makes a ghastly discovery. A severed human ear lying on the ground. Curious, he sets out to solve the mystery of who it might belong to. Along this path he meets up with somebody else's high school sweetheart, ( Laura Dern ) and they set out to solve this puzzle while heating the incubation of their growing love. From the opening scene, when Lynch shows us a passing fire truck right off the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, we realize that this film is more about the things we can't see then the things we can. Lynch has a very artistic way of showing you these examples of goodness. Only to make you shiver when he drags you underneath the streets to show you the evil which no society has ever been totally free of. In this case that evil's name is Frank, played by screen icon Dennis Hopper in an amazing performance which might be his best in a career which spans almost fifty years. Frank is a bad man who is inexplicably tormenting a broken down lounge singer ( Isabella Rosallini ) as Jeffrey discovers through his unauthorized detective work. McLachlan is clean cut and polite as the innocent Jeffry. And so handsome that he purposely represents the athletic ideal in another example of the good which Lynch keeps teasing us with. As for Laura Dern as his partner in crime fighting and maybe more. I don't see her as the beauty queen for which she is so often cast. But I can't deny that she is a good actress and her performance is worthy. But Hopper as the deranged Frank dominates the screen. His viciousness bellies everything Lynch has shown us when relating to the Elm Streets of Jeffrey's Northwestern hometown. Hopper captures the insidiousness and violence perfectly while his director begins to deluge our minds with much darker images. When Lynch is criticized it is usually because his films tend to branch off in totally obscure directions. Leaving the audience perplexed and guessing not only at the meaning but wondering if there's even any common sense to it at all. Lynch swears that his films make sense. But to everyone's relief 'Blue Velvet' does come to an explicable conclusion. While it's not exactly your Hollywood ending with a bow on top. No one could call it obscure. Ultimately 'Blue Velvet' is not only Lynch's best film. 'Which is a stellar list in its own right, it could easily be the most daring and beautiful feature of its entire decade. Even people that don't understand him agree, Lynch is a genius. And 'Blue Velvet is his crowning achievement. 10 out of a possible 10 T.H.
Review of Blue Velvet
