Terrible Film
I understand many of you have background in some form of film appreciation. As do I. This movie has a number of intertextual referenes from Alice in Wonderland, to Oliver, to Neverwhere, to Pierrot Le Fou, to Trainspotting, to the writings of various Slam-Philosophers.
But it simply doesn't add up.
Again, we have a film that more or less glamorizes heroin addiction--not dealing with the reality of addiction, but looking at it through a tinted lens of self-serving neo-philospophy. As a former employee of a methadone clinic, let me assure you that the kind of scenario shown in this film is not hip, cool, trendy, or anything other than sad.
We have a character that sings into the camera, a technique I don't mind, as Guy Maddin's 'Saddest Music In The World' is one of my favorites. But in the context of this film, it feels like an empty gesture. Even the song in Wild At Heart seemed to arrive from the moment Lynch created. Here? 'When a Man Loves A Woman,' is an arbitrary moment. A 'doing for the sake of doing' moment that simply doesn't work.
Again, I'm not out to flame anyone who enjoyed it, some close friends of mine certainly did. But I just don't see anything in it that hasn't been done before, and better.