124 or 1001 Movies: Blue Velvet (1986)

I wasn't sure what to expect from Blue Velvet since I'd only heard of David Lynch's name with Twin Peaks, and I had never seen it. I expected this to be an odd movie though it turned out to be much weirder than anticipated. Now I can enjoy odd movies, and I like quirky characters, but there was something about this movie that just didn't come together to form likable characters, but instead people just thrown into a very odd situation who already seem a bit a off to begin with.

After Jefferey discovers an ear severed in his backyard he decides to begin investigating himself on where it might have come from. With the help of a friend he has made, Sandy, they single in on an apartment rumored to be known to be filled with horrors. Dorothy is in residence there, and also works as a singer in a nearby nightclub. Jefferey sneaks in one night though to find that she might be a victim of a violent kidnapper that lives with her, Frank. Jefferey becomes intent on solving the crime himself, and rescuing the woman in the house from the crimes within.


One thing that factors into liking a movie is whether you feel you can recommend it to someone else after you're done watching this, and this one is so bizarre I would worry what someone thought of me for recommending it. It doesn't fail to keep you intrigued, but this movie seems to run on oddness, and coincidences. The actors do give strong performances though, which does salvage the movie, but it needs some direction at times.

Besides Portlandia, I hadn't been able to see Kyle MacLachlan in a movie, but I look forward to seeing him in more. For someone who is being surrounded in oddities he seems to keep in tack his acting chops. Jefferey though seems sort of creepy, and honestly he never becomes a likable character. I don't know if that is the intention or if he just wasn't well written. He just seems to do too many off things like take advantage of a woman that is mentally disturbed. There is also Laura Dern who is Sandy, and the only other role I know to associate her with is Jurassic Park. In this one she plays a naive high schooler who doesn't have much roots in her personality though. She seems pretty strong, but the weirdness just cast a huge shadow over her to the point where you can't tell what to think of her.

Dorothy is portrayed by Isabella Rossellini who definitely does showcase a woman who seems to have a lot of dimensions as far as why she is the way she is. The ending though will confuse many regarding her. It just doesn't fit in with the rest of the movie. That about sums up the whole movie though. It feels dark, and odd, but we end on quite a light note by the end, and with what we've been led to feel the entire time it just feels it should have been a lot darker. There are too many vibes trying to be pushed into one movie.

Blue Velvet may mostly count as an artistic attempt. It has a bit of horror, thriller, and romance all mixed in to create something that feels very off the wall. With no characters to really feel clearly likable it muddy's it a bit, and even Dennis Hopper as Frank just feels too out there to even be a believable bad guy. Along with that Jefferey seems to be right about all his assumptions regarding the crime even though we are given no reason he would know these things. Everything just seems to fall in place for the sake of falling in place for the plot.

Rating 5 of 10.