So after a brief hiatus (I was a little Twin Peaksed out... it's such a mindfuck that I need a little time off) I am ready and eager to watch the movie that is supposed to establish, though it was originally filmed as a prequel, some kind of "closure" or conclusion to the second season of the show. We'll see how it goes.
For starters, the movie is definitely inferior to the television show. Of course, it worked better as a show because the audience was allowed to really grow attached to (or unattached to) the personae of Twin Peaks over the course of many episodes. But for me, the real reason I couldn't get as attached to the film as the show is that Kyle MacLachlan has an extremely small part. This makes sense, as he's a character who is brought in right at the beginning of the show who has no ties to the community beforehand. So then, for the sake of bringing some resolution, we have to follow the very mediocre Sheryl Lee (the doomed Laura Palmer). Let's give Lee props, though: she failed to impress much during the show (where she was Laura in flashbacks and played her doppelganger cousin Maddie) but does a much better job here. The problem is that she's just not that interesting, really. Certainly not as off-the-wall as MacLachlan or The Log Lady.
This brings me to the larger problem, as a whole. The movie fails to evoke the wit and charm so prevalent in the show. The outrageous characters and neat (though confusing) triangles of relationships are lost to the story of Laura Palmer. If you think it's unfair that the review is mostly a comparison of the movie to the show as a whole, I have to submit that it's not applicable to completely separate the two. It's a continuation, not a stand-alone project.
Other things I wondered/felt:
1. What the hell could have been so important for Lara Flynn Boyle that she couldn't reprise her role as Laura's best friend Donna?
2. Could James, an integral role of Laura's life, pre-murder, been relegated to any less and less interesting screen time?
3. Ray Wise is creeeeeeeeeepyyyyyyyyyyyy (and so good as Leland Palmer).
4. Chris Isaak was in a movie other than the five minutes he was in Silence of the Lambs? Huh.
5. OMG. The cheesy, screamed "I LOVE YOU JAMES!" What an unnecessary, LOL moment.
Altogether, only a somewhat satisfactory "conclusion" that didn't teach me much that I hadn't already known or hadn't already guessed/inferred. Perhaps there were more particulars than possibilities, but it wasn't mindblowing. It was unfortunately nothing that I couldn't have lived without, and what we weren't privy to was any sort of culmination of MacLachlan's post-red-curtain transformation. Quelle dommage.
Score: 5/10
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